The Temptation of Miss Potter
by Rumaan
Summary: Lily Potter is rescued from Knockturn Alley by Scorpius Malfoy. Her obsession with the boy and the mystery surrounding his mother soon cause her to ignore her father's warning to stay away from the Malfoy family. EWE & HG/DM
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Ok, I'm not really happy with the title for this fiction so if you have any suggestions please do let me know.**

**A big thank you to petitesorciere who has kindly given me permission to use an idea that she originally had in her fic Rifts and Romance. Check out her stories, they are great.**

**Oh and I know only Albus has the green eyes in the epilogue but I've decided to give them to Lily as well. **

**Disclaimer: I'm not and never will be JK Rowling**

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><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

Lily found herself down Knockturn Alley, not a good place for a Potter to be especially the youngest and light of her father's eye. Stupid Rose and Hugo. Her cousins appeared to channel the spirits of their twin uncles Fred and George more and more each year. Indeed, Hogwarts hadn't seen two such pranksters since. The Weasley siblings certainly had a knack for trouble. Such trouble now found Lily down the dodgiest road in wizarding London. She looked too much like her father for this to go unnoticed, her emerald green eyes and black hair too remarkable and could already feel the eyes burning a hole in the back of head. Lily knew the worst thing she could do would be to show the fear that was currently coursing through her body. Keeping a nonchalant expression on her face, Lily fought to keep her shoulders from tightening up and giving her away. She looked around surreptitiously hoping to find a landmark she recognised which was stupid really as she had never ventured down here before.

Heading in what she hoped was the right direction; Lily rounded the corner only to bump into a brick wall. A warm, breathing brick wall. Hands shot out to grab and steady her before she could fall backwards onto the floor and she found herself breathing in a musky cologne mixed with the scent of warm male. "Well, well Princess, this is a little far from your domain," drawled a voice she knew all too well.

Lily looked up into the grey eyes of Scorpius Malfoy. The boy had fascinated Lily for years. Mainly, she surmised, because he was forbidden fruit. She had been warned to stay well away from him by her dad, her uncle Ron, Rose and her brothers James and Albus. She knew that there was bad blood between the Potters and the Malfoys but it hadn't stopped her gaze from resting on him in the Great Hall. The oldest Malfoy had a charisma that was matched by no other boy at Hogwarts. His supreme confidence bordered on the arrogant and he ruled Slytherin House with an iron fist. This was the first time Scorpius had ever spoken to her and she found herself blushing under his silver gaze.

"So what's Potter's precious little girl doing in such salubrious surroundings?" Malfoy asked.

Lily cleared her throat and tried to answer this time. Staring at him like a vacuous ninny was not good for her reputation as an intelligent witch. "Rose and Hugo sent me on a wild goose chase. I can only imagine they thought it would be amusing for me to end up down here."

Before Scorpius could answer, a voice so similar to his own called out. "Scorpius? Where have you got to? We've got to meet your mother in five minutes." Lily's eyes widened as Scorpius' father, Draco Malfoy, rounded the same corner and smirked as he took in the scene before him. "Ah Miss Potter, what are you doing here?"

Lily felt her cheeks blush even harder. Being the centre of attention for the two tall blond Malfoy men was more than a little overwhelming especially as her dad had nothing good to say about Mr Malfoy. Indeed she'd overheard some bitter conversations between her dad and Uncle Ron about Mr Malfoy and his wife.

"She appears to be lost, father," Scorpius answered for her. Great, she was coming across as a complete airhead unable to answer a simple question.

"Well we'd hate for anything to happen to Miss Potter so I think we'd better restore her to father's loving embrace," Mr Malfoy drawled sarcastically. "Miss Potter, if you could take Scorpius' arm please and we'll escort you back to Diagon Alley before your father has the ministry out looking for you." Lily grasped Scorpius' out stretched arm and followed Mr Malfoy back down Knockturn Alley.

Within minutes, Lily found herself back in the hustle and bustle of Diagon Alley. "Do you know where your father is?" Mr Malfoy turned and asked her.

Lily shook her head, "I was meant to meet him half an hour ago in Flourish and Blotts."

"Well we're heading that way to meet my wife. I'm sure your father will still be around looking for you."

Lily was even more curious now. She had seen Mrs Malfoy plenty of times on Platform nine and three quarters sending and greeting her children off the Hogwarts Express. She was the polar opposite to the Malfoy brood with thick curly brown hair, a pair of warm laughing eyes and about a foot shorter. She had always thought that there was some mystery that surrounded her from the times she'd heard her dad and Uncle Ron speak about her, the awed looks she received from other parents and the way that dad and uncle studiously ignored her every time they came across her. They never even looked her way. Lily was pleased that at last she would be meeting her.

As they entered Flourish and Blotts, Lily was amazed to see the tenderest smile cross Draco Malfoy's face as he spied his wife browsing the bookshelves. Who would have thought that such a cool, arrogant man could look such a way? "Found something we don't yet own in the library, my little bookworm," Mr Malfoy teased

Lily's fascinated gaze took in the brunette's cheeky smile as she swatted her immaculate husband around the head. "No, thanks to me, the library in Malfoy Manor is the best stocked in the land. Minerva told me the other day that it put Hogwarts to shame," and she stuck her tongue out at him. Her gaze moved past her handsome husband and landed on Lily, whose arm was still laced through Scorpius'. "Draco, are you looking for Harry to kill you?" Why do you have his daughter in tow?"

"Scorpius found her wandering around Knockturn Alley. We thought it would be a good idea to bring her back to Diagon Alley before something bad could happen to her." He answered.

Lily found herself being distangled from Scorpius and pulled into a warm, friendly hug. "Oh dear, what trouble you could have gotten into. What on earth were you thinking to go down there on your own and as a Potter?"

Lily found herself hanging her head slightly in shame as she would with her own mother. "I was following Rose and Hugo Weasley, Mrs Malfoy."

Her answer was met with a tinkling laugh. "Those two, I hear, could rival Fred and George Weasley as trouble makers. Please call me Hermione. Mrs Malfoy always makes me feel a hundred years old. Besides, as my dear mother in law always tells me, I don't have enough dignity to be a Mrs Malfoy."

Lily felt Mr Malfoy and Scorpius both bristle at that. The two Malfoy men seemed very protective when it came to Hermione Malfoy. Hermione ignored this, her attention continuing to remain on Lily. "Now, I think we'd better find Harry and restore you to him before he completely loses his mind and does something typically rash. I'm sure I saw him around here earlier."

Before they had looked too far, Lily heard the frantic tones of her dad, "Lily, there you are. Where have you been? I've been worried sick and searching up and down Diagon Alley for you." Before Lily could answer his question, her dad spotted Hermione with Scorpius and Draco Malfoy behind her. He stiffened and Lily could see him grasping for his wand.

"Dad, it's ok. I got lost down Knockturn Alley and Scorpius and Mr Malfoy rescued me and brought me back to Flourish and Blotts."

"Knockturn Alley! What the bloody hell were you doing down there?" Lily spun to face her Uncle Ron and saw the pleading faces of her cousins Rose and Hugo behind him. There was no way she was going to dob them in as both her dad and uncle would kill them.

"I was curious," Lily mumbled ignoring the unimpressed expression on Scorpius Malfoy's face. So she struggled to lie and wasn't Slytherin enough to think of something on the spot. At least her dad would believe her as she never lied to him.

Harry looked exasperated but not surprised afterall with him and Ginny Weasley as parents, it was expected that their children would inherit their curious nature and inability not to do rash things. "I won't say that I'm not disappointed in you because you know how dangerous Knockturn Alley is especially for you but I guess as you are ok and if you promise never to be so foolish again, I won't punish you. I hope you've at least learnt your lesson."

Lily blushed once more at being treated like a little kid in front of Scorpius. She was 15 years old but the way her dad had just spoken to her you'd think she was 6. He turned towards the Malfoys, "I guess thank you is in order."

Lily saw both Draco and Scorpius Malfoy raise identical eyebrows in scorn at the less than graceful thank you. Lily squirmed in embarrassment. Only Hermione appeared unaffected, "It was our pleasure Harry. We would hate for something to happen to Lily." She said with a charm that put Harry to shame.

"Well I suppose I'll see you at Kings Cross next week. Until then Mr and Mrs Malfoy," Harry said with a brief nod before dragging Lily away behind the large Weasley brood.

Lily was mortified at dad's behaviour and the fact that he hadn't even let her say goodbye let alone thank you to her rescuers. She turned around and saw the pain and hurt in Hermione Malfoy's eyes and the anger that suffused her husband's face. She caught eyes with Scorpius and gave him a shy smile and a small wave. His enigmatic facial expression didn't change accept for the quirking of his right eyebrow.

**AN: Please review and let me know what you think of the first chapter.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Thanks so much for the alerts and favourites on this fiction. A big thank you to my reviewers: animerocker646, hushpuppy22, petitesorciere, echizenochi, addictedtobooks and cacata.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

Lily found herself looking around Platform nine and three quarters for the familiar platinum heads of the Malfoy clan. She'd found it difficult to think of anything else for the last week. She had tried to question her dad about Hermione Malfoy as she'd been so drawn to the Malfoy matriarch but he had clammed up and refused to give her anything other than monosyllabic answers. This had piqued her interest more than ever. Hermione had referred to her dad as Harry constantly and seemed to know him well whilst he had called her Mrs Malfoy and referred to her as a stranger.

Lily thought back to yesterday's conversation with her mum, usually they were happy to band together, the only females in two generations of dominant males in their respective families. Giving up on getting any answers from dad, Lily had approached her mum. Her parents had known each other from childhood so Lily knew that if anyone could shed light on the mystery surrounding Hermione Malfoy then it would be her mum. Lily had mooched into the kitchen and slumped at the table where her mum was checking Quidditch statistics against her report for the Daily Prophet. At Lily's entrance, Ginny looked up, "What's wrong sweetie?"

Lily growled gently, "Its dad. He's refusing to give me any answers and is basically fobbing me off as a silly little girl who cannot handle real life."

Ginny smiled softly, Lily was the quietest of her children and indeed of her brothers' large broods too. She was often content to sit in the background and observe. Her male relatives took this as a sign of fragility but Ginny recognised it as quiet strength. Her daughter had a tenacity that wasn't often roused but when it was she pursued it with a passion that few people could withhold. Ginny had seen it rise last week in Diagon Alley when she'd met the Malfoys. Ginny had dreaded something like this happening. As a girl who had had a crush on a seemingly unattainable boy, Ginny had successfully interpreted the longing looks Lily threw the oldest Malfoy boy's way a few years ago. She hadn't thought too much of it. She knew from Albus' letters that Scorpius Malfoy was happy to leave the Potters alone. Indeed, Ginny often suspected that Albus was upset about this. Ginny herself had been reassured. The less impact Scorpius Malfoy had on their lives the better and less likely Lily would have any interaction with him for her crush to grow beyond the appreciation of his beauty. Last week she couldn't help see how her daughter had been affected by her meeting with Hermione Malfoy. Lily wasn't a stupid girl, she was very intuitive and she'd been more than aware of the tension that swarmed around the two families in Flourish and Blotts. Ginny had been expecting her to come to about it. "Let me guess, you asked him questions about the Malfoys and in particular Hermione Malfoy."

Lily was surprised that her mum had got to the point so quickly. She shouldn't have been. Her mum had a way of knowing everything that went on in the lives of her children. She was also impossible to lie to. She was also as scary as Grandma Molly when she got angry. Lily nodded, "Yes and dad refused to tell me anything but it makes no sense, Hermione spoke about dad as if she knew him really well."

Ginny suppressed a stab of pain when she heard Hermione's name. She had never really stopped missing her former friend. They had tried to keep up an owl correspondence when the storm first broke but in the face of Harry and Ron's anger, Ginny had backed down. A decision she had never been entirely comfortable with. She sighed as she looked at her curious daughter, "If you want my advice, I suggest that you forget all about the Malfoys. Yes, they were very kind to bring you out of Knockturn Alley but there is no point delving into your dad's past relationship with them. You'd be digging up a can of worms that really doesn't need to be opened."

And that was all her mum would say. Lily found it most frustrating. She caught a glimpse of a tall head of blond hair and immediately thought of Scorpius Malfoy. She had been doing this increasingly in the past week to the point that his grey eyes haunted her dreams. Her family had made it clear that the Malfoy's were to be treated as enemies from her first day at Hogwarts. Her granddad Arthur had been enemies with Lucius Malfoy. Her dad and Uncle Ron detested Draco Malfoy and her brother Albus hated Scorpius. Lily was expected to hate Alcyone Malfoy but to be honest she admired the bubbly Slytherin girl. She couldn't, of course, show this but deep down she wanted to be friends. Unlike Scorpius, who was his father's clone, Alcyone was a mix of her two parents. She still had the distinctive Malfoy colouring but she had her mum's curly hair and sweet face. She was by far the most popular girl at Hogwarts which was extraordinary for a Slytherin.

Lily hugged her parents before getting on the train. She found a compartment with Rose and Hugo to dump her stuff. Being a fifth year, she had received the obligatory Potter prefect badge but Albus had been bitterly disappointed not to follow in James' footsteps by being Head Boy. He was probably marching up and down the train trying to work out who had got the badge over him. Lily hadn't wondered too long about who it could be. She thought it more than likely the badge had gone to Scorpius Malfoy who would make a dashing Head Boy. If he had received the honour, then he would also be the first Slytherin Head Boy since before the second wizarding war. It would be a coup for the disgraced house which was still battling to restore its image. She said her byes to Rose and Hugo, who weren't prefects. They had both received jumbo baskets of goodies from their Uncle George when they hadn't received prefect badges in their respective fifth years. Their Uncle George said they were following in the honoured Weasley tradition of raising hell at Hogwarts. Lily's heart pounded as she made her way up the train to the prefect's compartment. She felt ridiculously excited at the prospect of working under the new Head Boy if it was who she suspected. She slid the door of the compartment open and saw that she was right. Scorpius was sitting there with the shiny Head Boy badge. Opposite was her brother who glowered at the handsome Slytherin.

Albus caught sight of Lily and snapped his fingers and pointed to the empty seat next to him. Feeling her temper rise at his inappropriate way of showing, no make that _ordering_ her into the seat he had saved for her, Lily sat down. Now was not the time to put her brother in his place. Lily caught Scorpius' amused expression at Albus' behaviour. He met her eye and raised his brow as if mocking her for her acceptance of her brother's command. She blushed, looked away and tried not to stare at him too much for the entirety of the meeting. She knew she'd failed when she saw Albus look her curiously towards the end. This made her tame her reactions straight away. She couldn't afford for her brother to realise that she had a major crush on Scorpius Malfoy. He'd shout at her, bring the whole family into it and then try and kill Scorpius himself. Besides, she had to get over this infatuation, which had grown to obsessive proportions since he'd rescued her from Knockturn Alley, as nothing good could come from it. Anyway, it wasn't as if Scorpius had any feelings for her so why create a massive problem in her family. With this in mind, she managed not to look the Head Boy's way for the final ten minutes and escaped as quickly as she could back to her friends.

"Don't worry guys, I'll get the next one," Lily called out. The carriage they had all tried to squeeze into had refused to budge until Lily had sacrificed her warmth and got out. To be honest, she didn't really mind. She had a headache from all the noise a trainful of excited teenage kids could make. She looked around and saw that she was the only student left standing waiting for a carriage. In the midst of all the laughter, she hadn't noticed everyone else getting into carriages before them. She shivered slightly in the cold, dark night. Growing up on her father's stories of battling Voldemort and Death Eaters, she could imagine a couple jumping out at her. She had always had an overactive imagination and now she spent her waiting minutes thinking up which hexes she could use to emulate her dad in fighting off dark wizards.

Lily shrieked as a dry voice interrupted her musings, "Are you getting in or not? I'm pretty sure this is the last carriage as I've been assigned to make sure all the stragglers make it up to Hogwarts."

"Damn Malfoy, you scared me half to death," Lily said as she scrambled into the carriage.

"I could have let you stay in your own little world but I didn't think you'd want to walk to Hogwarts."

There was nothing Lily could say to that as it was true so she decided to try and expend her energy on not staring at Scorpius like a gormless moron. She decided that she'd take charge for once. "I never got the chance to thank you for last week but I really am grateful to you and your father for helping me out."

"No problem, it was worth it just to have a Potter thank a Malfoy," Scorpius said with a smirk.

"Your mother is very nice," Lily remarked hoping to finally get some information on Hermione Malfoy.

Lily saw Scorpius tense up immediately. "Hmmm," was all he said which did nothing to curb her curiosity. Now she knew that there was definitely something about Hermione that no-one wanted her to know.

"She seemed to know my dad pretty well," Lily pushed.

Scorpius visibly pulled himself together, "He's Harry Potter, who doesn't know him."

"I meant on a personal level," Lily persisted. She was determined one way or another to find out what the connection between her dad and Hermione Malfoy was. Sadly it appeared that her son did not want to play. He shrugged at Lily and looked out the window.

Lily decided to drop it. This was only the second time she'd spoken to Scorpius and she didn't want to waste it like she had the previous opportunity. "Congratulations on making Head Boy."

Scorpius bought his attention back to her, "Thanks, I was sure it was going to your brother so I really didn't expect the badge at all."

Lily smiled, "Yeah, Albus thought it was going to him too. James hasn't stopped teasing him about it." She didn't mention that James was teasing him about losing out to a Malfoy. Scorpius just gave a brief smile at that. Lily racked her brains trying to think of something else to say and coming up short.

"Congratulations on making prefect," Scorpius said back pulling Lily out of her frantic search for new topic conversations.

She grinned, "I don't think it was me that got that badge more like my family name."

"I wouldn't under-estimate yourself, Lily. You have qualities that make a very good prefect. My sister tells me that you're smart and responsible. Sounds like perfect prefect material."

Lily didn't know how to respond to that. Part of her was in shock and the other part was busy jumping up and down and screaming. Scorpius Malfoy had actually discussed her with his sister. She rated as more than a mere blip on his radar. Before she could reply the carriage stopped and Scorpius hopped out. He held his hand out to her to help her down from the carriage. She blushed and took up his offer. As Lily straightened up she caught sight of Rose and Albus waiting for her on the steps. The matching frowns on their faces didn't bode too well for Lily. "Er thanks," Lily said distracted by her disapproving relatives.

Scorpius looked round and saw the welcoming party. He turned back to her, "Your welcome Lily. I guess I'll be seeing you around." He walked up the stairs and into Hogwarts. She heard him politely mutter, "Weasley, Potter," to Rose and Albus before disappearing into the Great Hall.

"Like to tell me what the hell you were doing in a carriage with Scorpius Malfoy?" Albus growled at her.

"It was the last carriage and there wasn't room for me in the previous one. As Head Boy, he was assigned to take the last carriage and make sure all the students had made it off the train." Lily calmly replied.

Albus looked annoyed at the reasonable response, "Well you didn't have to look so bloody friendly with him."

"What was I meant to do _Albus_, start a fight with him for daring to share a carriage with me?" Lily asked emphasising his name.

"Stoic silence would have been better. You're a Potter, Lily and that means no fraternising with the enemy who are the Malfoys."

"You do realise the war was over before we were born don't you? Besides, what has Scorpius Malfoy ever done to you? Don't think the whole of Hogwarts isn't aware that _you_ seek _him_ out for arguments. If you ask me this is why McGonagall didn't make you Head Boy."

Albus' face went dangerously red and for a brief moment Lily thought that he may actually physically attack her. He took several deep breathes before replying, "Just watch yourself Lily. Don't think for a moment that a friendship with Scorpius or any other Malfoy will be tolerated. And don't you dare tell me to back off, I'm your older brother and you are very much my business." Albus looked seriously at Lily before stalking into the Great Hall leaving her alone with Rose.

"I have noticed Lily. I've only kept my mouth shut for the past couple of years because you were happy to admire from afar but don't take this any deeper. He did a nice thing for you last week and I do regret you ending up in Knockturn Alley but it's not a good idea for you to look to prolong any interaction between you and Malfoy. Now we'd better get inside before McGonagall starts her speech."

Lily really didn't feel like having to suffer her way through sorting and a feast. Gone was the glow from her conversation with Malfoy. Now all that remained was a bitter taste from her family laying the law down. She sadly looked over to the Slytherin table and saw Scorpius tracking her entrance. He quirked an eyebrow in query and all Lily could do was nod and smile when what she really wanted to do was run up to her dormitory and sob her heart out.

**AN: Please review and let me know what you think**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Thank you for your alerts, favourites and reviews.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

Lily settled back into life at Hogwarts quickly. The daily routine of lessons and homework was added to by her prefect duties. She found she enjoyed being a visible presence for the younger years to come to with their queries, worries and problems. She was also quite surprised to find that she was a popular prefect to come to and not just amongst Gryffindors. She had her fair share of Hufflepuffs and even some Ravenclaws come to her. However, she wasn't too keen on the patrolling. Surrounded by so many protective, older males Lily was sheltered for a 15 year-old. She had seen more in her last month as a prefect than she thought she ever wanted to of steamy lovers clinches. Luckily for her, she had been set to patrol with her Gryffindor counterpart so the sniggering at her blushes had been kept to a minimum. This month the rota was set to change. The prefects would now be consigned to patrol with prefects from other houses, but Lily had her embarrassing reactions under control now.

Lily bounced down the steps to the Gryffindor common room. She was in a very good mood this morning, as it was not only Saturday, but she'd also managed to get through a particularly nasty Potions essay the night before. "Morning sunshine, you're a happy, little bunny today," Hugo greeted her.

"What's not to be happy about, the sun is shining, despite it being October, and it's the weekend."

"Yeah, well some of us still have that evil Potions essay hanging over our head."

"I did offer to help you with that, but you, Mr Stubborn, were determined not to study last night."

"Lily, it was Friday night. No-one studies on Friday nights except losers like yourself."

Lily stuck her tongue out at him, "I may be a loser, but right now I'm a smug loser who only has minimal homework for the rest of the weekend."

"So, does that mean your offer to help me out no longer stands?"

"Yep, I've put that unwelcome episode behind me for good."

"Huh! Some cousin you are. Besides, shouldn't you be nice to me this close to your birthday. If you want a good present that is."

"Blackmail, Hugo? I'm shocked. Isn't that too much of a Slytherin trait for a Weasley?"

"Ooh a low-blow from a Potter. I thought you were meant to the noblest of all Gryffindors, Miss Sass. But speaking of the snakes, have you seen the patrolling rota? It's going to make Albus spit nails."

"What's going to make me spit nails?" Albus asked, joining the conversation at the end.

"The new patrolling rota, wait until you see who little Miss Potter here is down to patrol with."

The siblings, intrigued by Hugo's teasing, went over the notice board. Lily found her name and saw that she was down to patrol with Alcyone Malfoy for the next month. "That bloody bastard," Albus yelled.

Hugo sauntered over, "Look on the bright side, Albie, it could be worse. She could be patrolling with Marco Zabini or our esteemed Head Boy himself."

"He did this on purpose. He's probably been waiting to get back at me ever since I warned him to stay away from Lily."

"Hang on, you did _what_?" Lily asked.

"And the cat is out of the bag," Hugo interjected.

An enraged Lily turned her attention to her cousin, "Back off, Hugo, now is not the time."

Hugo backed off slowly, hands in the air in the universal sign of surrender. "Don't shoot, Lily, I'm too young to die," he quipped at her.

Knowing that this was Hugo's way of leaving the heated argument, Lily just growled at him in frustration before turning her narrowed eyes back on her brother. "Explain," she demanded.

"I may have had a little word with Malfoy after the carriage incident. I told him to stay away from you."

"What gives you the right to do such a thing?"

"Unless it's escaped your notice, I'm your older brother."

"So? You do not get to dictate who I get to socialise with and you going to warn people off behind my back is crossing the line."

"It's Malfoy and he was getting too interested."

"You are way out of line, Albus. Malfoy has done nothing but be nice to me. He kept me from getting ripped to shreds in Knockturn Alley and he was doing his job as Head Boy and picked me up in the last carriage. Can you point out where precisely he has been showing too much interest?"

"Well," Albus spluttered, "It's not that he's done anything per se but the intent is there and no Malfoy is allowed to mess with a Potter."

Lily threw a handy, nearby book at Albus. "You are unbelievable. You're the one causing a problem not Malfoy. How dare you embarrass me so much?" Lily was so angry she was practically in tears. She went to storm off before she did some actual damage to Albus and cause an even bigger scene.

"Hey, Lily, fancy being a Beater this year?" Hugo called out causing Lily to scream with frustration.

"It's far too early for noise like that, young lady, and you're a prefect as well," the Fat Lady scolded as Lily fled the common room.

Lily remained angry with Albus for the rest of the weekend. Her sunny mood dissipated and she was left stomping her away around Gryffindor Tower, scattering frightened first-years. Albus wisely kept his distance from her, scheduling several extra Quidditch sessions to stay out of her way. Only Rose would come near her and she didn't bother to hide the fact that she found the situation amusing. Albus never learnt his lesson. Lily was easy going up to a point, but if you made her mad then no-one could save you. She may have inherited the Potter genes, but Lily definitely had the Weasley temper, something, Rose thought, people were stupid to forget.

Monday came round quickly and there was still no truce between the Potter siblings. The usual prefect meeting was held that evening and on this week's agenda was the new patrolling agenda. Lily stalked ahead of Albus towards the meeting room. She was not in the mood to play nice and united in front of the other houses. "Come on, Lily, I was looking out for you. That's my job."

"No, your job is to be my brother. A brother should not go out of his way to humiliate his sister by making out that innocent boys are looking to corrupt her and confront said boy about it. God, Albus, Scorpius must have laughed long and hard at our expense."

Albus had the sense to not prolong the conversation. Beside, Lily had hit a nerve. Malfoy had looked amused at Albus' rant. What was it about the annoying snake that made him lose his temper so much? He always came off second best in their confrontations. It wasn't meant to be that way. His dad and Uncle Ron were always full of amusing anecdotes about how they had bested Draco Malfoy, from his dad constantly beating him at Quidditch to his Uncle Ron punching him after saving him from a Death Eater in the final battle. As soon as Albus realised that Scorpius Malfoy was in his year, he had looked forward to emulating his dad. But Scorpius had turned the tables. Albus couldn't touch him on the Quidditch pitch and Scorpius always foiled Albus' attempts to make him look stupid. How Albus hated the Slytherin. Lily spun round just before entering the meeting, "I'm warning you, Albus," she hissed, "Don't you dare start."

Albus briefly wondered if he should tell Lily that he'd been trying to track Malfoy down all weekend to discuss the rota. Maybe now was not the time, she'd flip out and he didn't want an audience for one of her lectures. Being shouted at by your little sister was not good the image.

Lily was pleased when the meeting finished without Albus making a massive scene about her new patrolling partner. She was clearing up her stuff, getting ready to leave when Scorpius burst her bubble. "Albus, I believe you've been trying to get hold of me all weekend. Do you want to stay behind to chat about what is worrying you?"

Lily looked at Albus who at least had the sense to look slightly ashamed as he gave her a quick smile and wave. Lily was about to object, knowing why Albus had been keen to speak to Scorpius, but the Head Boy beat her to it. "Maybe Amelia, Lily and Alcyone should stay too as I think this may have something to do with them."

Albus looked annoyed at this but Lily thought it a good thing that she, the Head Girl and Alcyone stay behind. It would stop this confrontation ending in hexes and a trip to the infirmary.

"What's wrong, Albus?" Amelia asked. She was the daughter of Susan Bones and had been named after her Great-Aunt who had been killed by Voldemort's supporters in the war.

"I'm not happy with the new rota," Albus remarked.

"Why didn't you say anything during the meeting?" Amelia looked towards Scorpius who was leaning against the table, his arms crossed and the Malfoy smirk on his face.

"I didn't want to cause a scene but I don't think it's a good idea to pair Lily and Alcyone up as patrol partners."

"Why?" Amelia asked getting more and more confused.

"Well," Albus blustered, trying to think of an excuse that didn't revolve around the fact that Alcyone was a Malfoy, "I just think that it would be better if Lily was partnered with someone like Algernon Blake."

Lily was doing her upmost to keep a hold of her temper especially as both Malfoys were openly amused by Albus' poor excuse. Amelia was looking frustrated, "But I spent ages going through the relative strengths of all the fifth-year prefects and thought that I had produced the strongest rota possible. To be honest, I was rather pleased with Lily and Alcyone being paired up together. They will make a formidable pair of prefects."

"You mean that Malfoy didn't make the rota up?"

"No, we take each month in turn and Malfoy had the rota last month."

"Oh," was all Albus could say as his whole theory about the rota being used as personal revenge by Scorpius went up in smoke. If Lily hadn't been so angry with Albus she may well have felt sorry for him as he looked foolish right now. Only Amelia was clinging to the idea that Albus had any legitimate concerns with the rota.

"So if that is all cleared up, maybe we can call it a night," Scorpius said.

Albus had had the wind completely taken out of his sales and could do nothing but nod his agreement. Scorpius smirked at the deflated Gryffindor and left.

Thursday night came round quickly. It was her first patrol with Alcyone and Lily was nervous. She wasn't sure why she was so worked up about spending time with the Slytherin girl but she was. Possibly because she knew that Scorpius had discussed her with his sister but also because she did admire the girl. Alcyone was breaking down Slytherin stereotypes like an unstoppable force of nature and Lily respected that.

"Hi, Lily, ready to go?" Alcyone greeted her when Lily arrived at the prefects' office.

"Hey, Alcyone, yes lets get this out of the way. I have double Potions in the morning,"

The first half an hour went off quietly, both girls walking in silence not sure of what to say to each other. Alcyone decided after a while that she may as well break the ice and get the elephant out of the room. "So has your brother calmed down about this yet?"

Lily grimaced, "He's had to after he was so thoroughly embarrassed by Amelia and Scorpius on Monday. He's still mumbling about it around the common room but everyone else has grown bored of his insane ramblings by now."

Alcyone giggled, "He really has it in for us Malfoys doesn't he. Does he think I'm going to kill you and feed you to a snake?"

"Don't ask. Unfortunately Albus is pretty irrational when it comes to you guys. Maybe he thinks you're going to indoctrinate me into the darks arts," Lily joked.

"Ha ha, my mum would love that. She'd lock us in the Malfoy dungeons before she allowed any of us to meddle in the dark arts."

"Your mum seems really nice," Lily said shyly.

Alcyone smiled fondly, "She's great. She keeps dad under control. She even won my grandparents over. They adore her now too despite the fact that they were completely opposed to her marrying dad."

"Why?" Lily asked. She was excited at finally getting some information on Hermione Malfoy.

"My mum is muggle-born whereas the Malfoy's have always been the purest of all purebloods. Grandma and Grandpa didn't want "muggle blood contaminating the Malfoy line" but dad defied them anyway and eloped with mum."

"That's so romantic," Lily sighed, "But now they like your mum?"

"Yeah, they came around when Scorpius was born. I think the fact that mum continued the Malfoy tradition of giving birth to sons first gave them hope that she wasn't going to totally destroy the House of Malfoy. Then, of course, I appeared followed by Maia and Cepheus. No woman had given birth to more than one child in over two centuries which cemented my mother in their affections. Then there is the fact that we all have the Malfoy colouring and have all been sorted into Slytherin. Grandpa was very happy about this."

"What's with all your weird names?" Lily had to ask

"Well that is a Black tradition. Grandma Narcissa is a Black by birth and they like to name their children after constellations and stars. Hence why my dad is called Draco and we've all got ridiculous names too. Dad was hoping mum would end this madness having suffered with Draco his whole life but she got together with Grandma and he had no chance to give us normal names. Mum says she thinks the tradition is cute. We think she's crazy."

"The Black family? Hey, my dad's godfather was Sirius Black."

"Yes, he was my grandma's cousin. I don't think my grandma has ever forgiven him for leaving 12 Grimmaud Place to your father. My mum has tried to convince her that she wouldn't want the house as it's so grim and dark but Grandma is adamant that she should have the Black family home."

"If I had my way I'd happily give your grandma the house back. We all hate staying in it which my dad makes us do the night before returning to Hogwarts. But your mum has been there?"

"Yeah, she stayed there during the war. It was the headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix."

This confused Lily a lot. She had always been told that the Malfoy family had been loyal to Voldemort hence why she was stay well away from them. Now she was hearing that Hermione Malfoy had been part of the Order. She didn't feel comfortable to ask Alcyone how a muggle-born member of the Order married into a family of notorious Death Eaters. She was spared trying to think of something else to say by the fact that they had completed their rounds and had returned to the prefects' office.

"That wasn't bad. Only a few stragglers out after hours," Alcyone commented.

"Yes, it was nice and quiet. Here's hoping every night is like this for the next month."

"See you around, Lily," Alcyone called out as she made her way back down to the Slytherin dungeons.

Scorpius was waiting up for her. "How did it go?" He asked when she sat down on the sofa next to him.

"Fine, it was really quiet. I gave a couple of Hufflepuffs detention for being out after curfew."

Scorpius made an impatient gesture, that wasn't what he was asking and Alcyone knew that. "How was it with Lily? Did you have any trouble with that brother of hers?"

"Nope, it was all fine. He wasn't around and Lily is very easy to get along with. You forget she's a Potter with the lack of animosity towards us."

Scorpius nodded pleased. He had nudged Amelia towards pairing his sister with Lily. He knew it'd get Albus' goat but he also wanted Alcyone to get to know the youngest Potter. He felt drawn to the young girl since Knockturn Alley. She had looked so brave but vulnerable trying to hide how scared she was. She had obviously been embarrassed by her father's behaviour later in the bookshop. She had never been hostile to any of the Malfoys throughout her time at Hogwarts. Alcyone had regularly commented on this as it contrasted so sharply with his own relationship with James and especially Albus Potter.

"She seemed very interested in us," Alcyone commented.

"How so?" Scorpius asked.

"Well I got talking about mum and dad's marriage and instead of zoning out like most people would, she was really curious and asked lots of questions."

"She tried to pump me for information about mum in the carriage up to Hogwarts but I didn't bite. I don't think she knows anything of mum's relations to Potter and Weasley so keep that in mind."

Alcyone grew sad at this, Scorpius went over and pulled her into a hug. "Don't stress about it Alcyone. You've seen mum and, yes, it upsets her but she doesn't let it affect her too much."

"I'm just so angry that they get away with treating her like that just because she fell in love with dad. No-one could deny that she's the best thing that has happened to the Malfoy family in generations, but they cling onto petty school rivalries and treat her like dirt."

"It says more about them than it does her, sweetie."

"Be careful Scorpius."

Scorpius raised his eyebrow questioningly at Alcyone. "She's had a crush on you for years. I've seen her staring at you across the Great Hall. I know that you've been intrigued with her since Diagon Alley but her family would never accept a relationship between the two of you. You'd be making her life difficult if you pursue anything. She doesn't deserve to have to make a choice between a boyfriend and her family."

Scorpius sighed, "I know. I'm going to stay away from her. I don't want to be the cause of a rift between her and her family, no matter how little respect I have for them."

**AN: Please review, it's my birthday on Thursday and it'll be a nice early present. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Authors Note: Thank you all for continuing to read, alert and favourite this story. A bigger thank you for my reviewers who I love to hear from.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 4<strong>

Lily found herself in the library bright and early the next morning. She had found herself replaying her conversation with Alcyone when trying to sleep last night. She had been puzzled by her revelations about Hermione Malfoy. There was something at the back of her mind but she couldn't quite remember it. It tantalised her all night causing her to get no sleep. As soon as it was light, Lily had given up any pretensions of sleep, thrown her clothes on and hot-footed it to the library. She had waited outside until Madam Pince had opened up, yawning and clutching a coffee in one hand. "You're here early, Miss Potter."

"Yeah, I just wanted to check something," Lily replied.

Madam Pince smiled at the petite, raven haired girl, "OWL year?"

Lily smiled, "Yes, the professors are piling on the assignments."

Lily secluded herself at the back of the library at her favourite table. She was surrounded with a pile of books on the second wizarding war. Lily hoped Madam Pince didn't come wandering over for an early morning chat because she'd certainly be confused as to why Lily had seventh-year History textbooks spread out around her.

Due to the recent nature of the war, and the sensitivity surrounding current Hogwarts students who are intimately connected to events, Hogwarts didn't cover it until seventh-year. Lily went to the back of the nearest book and started scanning the index until she got to the Ms. There were the Malfoys. She bypassed the pages outlining the Malfoy links to Voldemort, Death Eaters, the final Battle, Lucius, Narcissa and Draco. There right at the bottom was Malfoy, Hermione, page 717. Lily flicked frantically until she reached the right page and skimmed until she saw Hermione Malfoy mentioned.

"_With the demise of Voldemort and the loss of prestige for so many old pureblood families, the old supremacist ideologies became untenable for the younger generations. Many pureblood wizards and witches went against their parent's wishes by mingling with and marrying muggle-borns. However, no marriage was more high-profile or shocking as that of Draco Malfoy to Hermione Granger."_

Lily gasped in shock at the last sentence, her brain reeling at the information she had just digested. She re-read the paragraph several times sure that she had misread it. She was struggling to comprehend what was written. She thought back to the stories her dad had told them all when they were little. He would always try and read them traditional fairy tales from his copy of _The Tales of Beedle the Bard, _but Lily always begged for stories of his school days and his adventures with Uncle Ron and Hermione Granger. Lily had always loved to hear about Hermione, a strong, female character for her to relate to. She'd been devastated when she was 6 and she'd asked her dad why they saw Uncle Ron but never Hermione, and he'd replied that Hermione had died not long after the war. Now, it appeared that her dad had lied to her. She felt betrayed by her parents. Her dad had lied, something she thought he'd never do, and her mum had actively participated. The truth made a mockery of the strong bonds of friendship her dad had described to her. The way Hermione had stood by him when no-one else had during the Tri-wizard Tournament and during their hunt for Horcruxes. She decided to read on.

"_The marriage caused a serious rift between Hermione Granger and her best friends Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. The relationship between the three, which had seemed unbreakable during the war, was severed irreparably. _

_To read about Hermione Granger's role during the war, look up Granger in the index."_

Lily felt tears streaming down her face. She thought back to how warm and friendly Hermione Malfoy had been towards her in Diagon Alley and the way in which her dad had treated her. It was unfair, so she'd married a Malfoy, that didn't mean she deserved to lose her friends. Lily ran out of the library, intent on writing a letter to demand her dad explain why he'd cut Hermione Malfoy out of his life.

Lily leant against the railings in the Owlry. She'd dashed off a hurt and angry letter to her parents and watched the school owl fly away with it. It seemed over the last six weeks that her world was falling apart. She had always idolised her dad. She had been his little girl and he was, most definitely, her hero. Now to discover that things he had told her weren't true was heartbreaking. Was the Potter-Weasley feud with the Malfoy family more important than best friends? Thoughts were swirling around Lily's mind so fast that she getting a headache. She turned to walk back down the stairs for breakfast when she saw Scorpius Malfoy standing there watching her. She had been so absorbed with her troubling thoughts that she hadn't heard him enter the Owlry. Scorpius took one look at her tear streaked face and knew that something was seriously wrong. "Are you ok, Lily?"

Lily didn't trust herself to be able to answer without sobbing so she shook her head whilst her lips trembled. "Is there anything I can do to help?" he asked.

"No," she cried, "I just found out that my dad has lied to me my whole life."

Scorpius frowned confused but allowed Lily to take her time in continuing. "He told me your mum was dead. When I asked him, years ago, what had happened to Hermione Granger, he told me that she died. How could he do that?" She yelled, sounding pretty hysterical.

Scorpius saw and heard the pain and anguish in her voice. She'd started to cry again and it tore at his heart. He walked forward and enveloped her in a hug. "Shush, Lily, it'll be alright," he comforted whilst rubbing her back.

"The way he treated your mum in Diagon Alley was just horrible. He has spoken of his childhood friend with so much love and affection but if he loved her like that then how could now speak to her as if she is nothing but a stranger to him? All because she married someone he didn't approve."

Lily looked up at him with the most bewildered and vulnerable expression on her face that Scorpius couldn't help himself. He leant down and kissed her. She froze for a moment but pushed up onto her toes, curled her arms around his neck and kissed him back. It was the softest, sweetest kiss he'd ever received. He clutched her close and licked his tongue across her lower lip. She shivered before opening her mouth. His tongue surged in and she moaned as he explored her mouth. She pressed herself closer to him, hesitantly deepening the kiss. Scorpius reigned in the part of his mind that urged him to push her against the nearest wall and take this to the next stage. She was emotionally distraught and it wouldn't be right to take advantage of that. It was also obviously her first kiss. He clamped down on his lustful thoughts and pulled back, peppering her lips with small kisses. She opened her eyes and blinked at him dazedly. Scorpius pulled away, "I'm sorry, Lily. I didn't mean for that to happen. You just looked so sad and lost, I couldn't help kissing you."

Lily reeled, that wasn't exactly what a girl wanted to hear from the boy who just gave her, her first kiss. "Oh, right, of course. Erm, don't worry. I won't hold it against you," Lily said smiling wobbly up at him.

Shit, real smooth mate, he shouted at himself. Now she thinks you just gave her a pity kiss. "I mean, it's not like I didn't want to kiss you. I've wanted to kiss you for weeks now."

Lily smiled, that was what she wanted to hear. "Really?" she said shyly.

"Yes, you've got under my skin and I can't stop thinking about you," Scorpius confessed.

Lily's smiled morphed into a full-blown grin. She leapt forward into Scorpius' arms. "I've been thinking about you too," she admitted.

He hugged her tightly for a minute before letting her go. "You do realise that we can't act on our feelings."

"Huh?" Lily said puzzled, "Why not?"

"Lily, your family will hate you and kill me if we start a relationship."

"So, they will get over it. I'm not going to allow stupid prejudice to stop me from following my heart."

"Just like your dad and uncle got over Hermione's relationship with my dad?"

Lily hesitated, Scorpius did have a point. "But that was different and years ago. They may be fine with us. Besides, you're not your dad and don't have the bad history with my family," she reasoned.

"Yeah, because not being my dad has worked out so well for James and Albus. Your brothers have been on my case since I walked into Hogwarts just because my surname is Malfoy. Do you really think they are going to turn around and give me their approval to date their little sister?"

Lily's heart sank. She knew Scorpius was right. Her family would throw a grade A strop if she told them that Scorpius was her boyfriend. Albus would probably attempt to convince the Fat Lady to not allow her out of Gryffindor Tower and then tell the House Elves to poison Scorpius. "I don't care," Lily whispered. "I want to be with you. I'm fed up of being told who I can and can't like."

Scorpius pulled her back into a fierce hug, "You are so amazing, Lily, and I want to be with you too, but I won't put you through having to fight your family over me."

"But I want to fight for you. You are worth that and if my family can't or refuse to see that, then they are the ones who lose out."

Scorpius kissed her forehead, "You think that now because you think that they will back down. My mum thought the same. She thought it would just take a few months for them to get used to her and dad but they didn't. Potter and Weasley cut her out of their lives completely and it hurts my mum still. Don't get me wrong, she doesn't regret marrying my dad, but she misses her friends. Every time we bump into either of them, she's quiet for days and there is nothing my dad can do. It eats at him. He's never liked either your dad or uncle, but he loves mum so much, that he would easily put all those feelings aside if it meant she could have them in her life again."

"What are you saying?" Lily asked.

"I could never do that to you. I can't be the reason that you are isolated from your whole family."

"But I want to be with you."

"And I want to be with you too but, Lily, I refuse to put you in a position where you have to choose between your family or me. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have kissed you and I shouldn't have admitted my feelings."

"I'm glad I know how you feel even if you won't let us be together."

"I'm sorry, but you'll look back on this and you know that it was the right thing to do. You'll find someone who isn't a Malfoy, who your family will be happy to accept." Scorpius tilted Lily's face up and gave her a last kiss. "I promise you I'll stay out of your way."

Lily watched with fresh tears in her eyes as Scorpius left the Owlry. "I wish you wouldn't" she whispered to the hundreds of owls.

Ginny and Harry were having breakfast the next morning when Lily's tear-stained letter was delivered. Ginny gave Harry a concerned look, Lily never cried but she obviously had been when she wrote this. "I guess we better check that Albus isn't giving her grief again," Harry said.

Ginny nodded and ripped open the letter. As she read it, Harry noticed her face go deathly pale. "I think you need to read this, Harry," she said handing it over to him. Harry scanned the contents, swore and then re-read them properly this time. "How the hell did she find out?"

"It couldn't remain a secret from her forever. Don't you remember the stress you went through when James decided he wanted to take NEWT level History of Magic and you had to sit him down and explain about Hermione."

"Of course I do but with James I knew that he hated the Malfoys too and that he'd see how Hermione betrayed us. Lily's different, you know she is. She's too emotional and she's always had this imagined connection with Hermione. She always wanted the stories where Hermione shone when she was little. You saw how she reacted to her when she met her in Flourish and Blotts and that was without her even knowing that she was once Hermione Granger."

"Harry, don't you think it's about time you spoke to Hermione? Lily knows and she's hurt and upset by the situation. She's not like the boys Harry, she won't see if from your point of view," Ginny said. Especially as she has feelings for the Malfoy boy, she thought to herself. This was not the time to mention that and give Harry a heart-attack.

Harry got up and started to pace up and down the kitchen. He ran his hand through his hair in his agitation, making it even messier than it usually was. "God, Ginny, what kind of stupid suggestion is that? Hermione made her choice when she decided to marry that ferret. She chose _him_ over _us_."

Ginny sighed. Harry was so stubborn over this. She had dreaded the day when her youngest child would find the truth out. She'd hoped it would have been a few years off yet but that wasn't to be. "What do you want to do then? You have to give Lily an explanation and don't think saying the same thing that you said to James will work."

"Why not? She knows our history with the Malfoy family. She's aware that both Lucius and Draco Malfoy tried to kill us several times."

Ginny groaned and banged her head on the table. Harry could never see past the little girl he adored. He didn't see that Lily had grown into a strong-willed young woman who had ditched the 'old' mentality, as Lily liked to call it, at around the same time she started Hogwarts and interacted with witches and wizards outside of her family circle. "If you think that reasoning will work with Lily then you have another think coming. In case you had failed to notice, she has refused to carry on any grudge against the Malfoy family since starting Hogwarts with Alcyone Malfoy."

Harry stopped, looked up towards the heavens and yelled in frustrated anger. He closed his eyes, took some deep, calming breaths before answering his wife. Ginny was right, Lily wasn't James or Albus and she was going to ask a whole heap of difficult questions. "Let me speak to Ron and I'll write her a response tonight."

Ginny smiled sadly, "Ron won't have any answers. He's just grateful Rose has never shown any interest in Scorpius Malfoy and is happy not to challenge the accepted status quo." Unlike your daughter who has done both, she added silently.

Alcyone eyed the drooping figure of Lily Potter across the Great Hall. To say that she was exuding a sad aura was an understatement. The girl looked like she hadn't slept in days, had red eyes that pretty much shouted that she'd spent hours crying and was barely eating. Alcyone looked down the table where, to everyone who wasn't blood related, Scorpius looked normal. Alcyone knew better. He had a tense jaw, couldn't keep his leg still and was physically trying to stop himself from biting the fleshy bit of his index finger, which he did when emotionally distressed. Maia and Cepheus had picked up on it too and were currently badgering their older sister to do something about it. She pursed her lips, grimaced at her annoying, younger siblings and went to beard the lion … well snake in this instance. "Ok, Scorpius, are you going to tell me what's happened between last night and breakfast?"

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean," he replied coldly.

"Don't treat me like I'm stupid. You may have fooled the Slytherin house with your stoic performance but you cannot pull the wool over your siblings' eyes. We all know something is wrong. And then interestingly, there is Lily Potter looking like a zombie over at the Gryffindor table. Such a coincidence if you ask me."

Scorpius curled his lip at his sister, "Hasn't anyone ever told you that you shouldn't jump to conclusions."

Alcyone rolled her eyes, "Try and fob me off all you like but I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on."

Scorpius cursed annoying younger sisters under his breath but he knew he'd have to capitulate. Alcyone was as annoying as a mosquito when she wanted something. She'd buzz around him all day until he told her occasionally biting, verbally of course. He might as well get it out of the way and tell her the monumental mess of things he'd made.

"I bumped into Lily this morning in the Owlry. She was sobbing her heart out. She'd managed to put two and two together after your conversation last night and had worked out exactly who mum is. She's pretty cut up about it as it seems her dad told her that mum was dead."

Alcyone gasped, "Poor Lily. What an awful thing to do."

"Yeah, she was distraught as you can imagine. She's just realised that her dad isn't such a hero as she thought."

"I feel really bad now, this is my fault. I should never have started talking about mum yesterday evening. Perhaps, I should go over and talk to her."

"Are you insane? Do you want to make things worse for her? Her brother and cousins will go crazy at a Malfoy waltzing over to chat to Lily Potter."

"I hadn't thought about that. I hate this stupid rivalry. Why did dad have to be such a prat at school and why do the Potters and Weasleys have to be such stubborn mules?"

Scorpius smirked at Alcyone, "I take it you don't see dad as your hero?"

Alcyone laughed, "Yeah, my failed Death Eater of a father. He's such a role model," she teased sarcastically but adding seriously, "At least he had the ability to change. He wasn't stupid enough to hang onto his prejudices and he grabbed mum when the opportunity arose."

"Speaking of grabbing, I haven't told you my own stupid behaviour this morning."

Alcyone eyed her big brother. He looked sad and unhappy. She wasn't used to seeing him like this. He was confident and sure of himself. "What happened, Scorpius?"

He ran his hands through his hair in frustration, "I kissed her," he whispered.

"What?" Alcyone yelled.

"Shush, what's wrong with you? Do you want the whole of Hogwarts to know?" He asked looking around to see if she had attracted any attention. Luckily no-one was interested in a possible sibling fight.

"Sorry, but what the hell happened to you staying away from her and not putting her in an impossible situation?"

"Yeah well, I couldn't help it. She looked so lost and vulnerable and I wanted to be a shoulder for her to lean on."

"Or a mouth for her to kiss," Alcyone remarked.

Scorpius rolled his eyes at her, "Do you want to hear what happened next or just sit there and make smart arse comments?"

Alcyone smacked his shoulder, "You better tell me what happened."

"She told me she liked me and wanted to be a relationship."

"Wow, Scorpius, I didn't realise you were such a stud that your girlfriend looks so happy and radiant at being with you."

"Ha bloody ha, you are the most annoying sister ever."

"Are you forgetting the time Maia cut up your wardrobe to create a fashion show for her dolls?"

"I'd take that over your annoying comments right now."

"Alright, I'll shut up. If you kissed her and she confessed her feelings for you, why are both so miserable right now?"

"Because I told her that we couldn't be together."

"Way to go, big brother. A girl who, correct me if I'm wrong, hasn't had a boyfriend before, tells you that she wants to be your girlfriend and you tell her no _after_ kissing her."

"If you thought for a moment, Alcyone, then you'd see that I'm right. How could I ask her to choose between me and her family? I won't put her in that position. Potter and Weasley disowned mum for marrying dad, can you imagine the pressure they'd put on Lily. Besides, as you pointed out, she's having these feelings for the first time, what if, in a month's time, she decides she likes someone else? Then she'd have fought with her family over nothing."

"I don't know, Lily doesn't seem the flighty type. She's had guys chasing her around since last year but she's not shown an iota of interest. Do you want to know why?"

"I'm sure you'll tell me either way."

"Because she's had a thing for you since pretty much starting Hogwarts. Oh, she kept it quiet but I've noticed how she watches you and so has that cousin of hers, Rose."

Scorpius got a warm feeling at that. He'd had his fair share of girls like him but Lily Potter was a whole different kettle of fish. She was a class act. The ice settled around his heart once more as he realised that this changed nothing. "I can't do that to her, Alcyone. She deserves to be with someone who her family will like and accept."

Alcyone mentally smacked her brother. He had gone into full blown noble mode which meant he'd kill himself staying away from Lily. Alcyone wasn't about to settle for that. She knew her mum didn't regret for a single second being with dad, despite what he and Scorpius thought, and she'd bet the last knut in her Gringotts trust vault that Lily would be the same. They shared that Gryffindor stubborness. Once they made up their minds they stuck to it. Alcyone didn't want to meddle but her tiresome brother was making sure she'd have to. So much for a quiet year, concentrating on my OWLs, Alcyone thought morosely. Then she looked at her brother and Lily once more and felt pity for them both. How ridiculous that the school lives of their parents were affecting their own ability to be together. Alcyone wasn't settling for that. Her brother deserved to get the girl he wanted.

**AN: I hope Lily finding out about Hermione was at least a little bit believable. It was the one point of the story that has been giving me trouble and this was my attempt to make it seem realistic that Lily wouldn't know who Hermione was. **

**I also didn't plan on Scorpius and Lily confronting each other about their feelings this early on but he insisted on kissing her. Hope that aspect of their relationship wasn't rushed for you.**

**Please let me know what you thought about both of those things by reviewing. Thanks.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: Thank you for the continuing alerts, favourites and reviews. I know you're all going to hate Lily at the end of this chapter but this is where my muse took me.**

**Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling, I'm just corrupting her characters.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 5<strong>

Lily was struggling to make it through the day. It felt as if everything was pressing in on her. She kept her distance from Albus, Rose and Hugo, knowing that they'd take one look at her and demand that she explain what was wrong. She couldn't deal with that right now. She was hurt by her dad's inexplicable behaviour and she was crushed by Scorpius' rejection. She just wanted to get through today and then see what her dad wrote to her. She hoped she'd get a reply from him tomorrow but she wouldn't be surprised if she had to wait a few days. Whilst she was upset with her dad, she knew that he loved her and would never intentionally lie and hurt her. He'd want to take time and care in his response to her letter. Growing up in the midst of the Potter-Weasley clan, she couldn't be blind to the hatred they felt towards the Malfoy family.

Lily dragged herself to her final lesson of the day, Charms. At least this would keep her mind of her many problems. Professor Flitwick always planned interesting and interactive lessons. The only downside to the lesson was that she would be in close proximity to Alcyone Malfoy. She could do without that reminder right now. But luck really wasn't on Lily's side today. Professor Flitwick decided that he wanted to shake his class up a bit and put them into organised partnerships. For her sins, Lily was placed with Alcyone. A week ago this would have been an amazing opportunity, today it was a living nightmare.

"Hi, Lily, how are you?" Alcyone cheerfully asked as she sat down next to the Gryffindor.

"I'm ok, you?" Lily responded dully.

Alcyone smirked. She wasn't a Hufflepuff to fall for that lie. She leant in to Lily and quietly whispered to her, "You don't have to lie to me. My brother never could pull the wool over my eyes and I got the whole sorry story out of him this morning."

Lily looked up at her in shock. To say that she was surprised was an understatement. She hadn't planned on pouring her sad heart out to anyone but maybe that was what she needed. She tilted her head as she debated whether to trust the Slytherin. Alcyone took matters into her own hands, "I always wondered why Scorpius wasn't sorted into Gryffindor," she confided in Lily. "Everyone sees him as the consummate Slytherin, and in some ways they are right, but he has a nobility that is nothing to do with being a Malfoy or a Slytherin. Dad always moans that it's his punishment for marrying a Gryffindor."

"Why are you telling me this?" Lily asked confused.

"Because Scorpius' noble side is definitely in control where you are concerned. If you want my brother then you need to break that wall down," Alcyone replied, staring at Lily pointedly.

"But why would you even want your brother to have a relationship with me? Wouldn't it be better if he was with a girl that didn't come with all these problems?"

"In an ideal world yes but Scorpius has had that type of relationship and it bored him after a week. I like you, Lily, you're not like many other girls and you're perfect for my brother. So I'm more than willing to help you snabble him."

Lily blushed at the compliment. She was feeling rather bemused by this whole conversation and a little bludgeoned by the bluntness of Alcyone. It was not something you usually associated with a Slytherin. "He seemed pretty adamant this morning that he wouldn't start anything with me."

"Ah but that is where my lamentably stubborn brother is wrong. He _already_ has started something with you. He can't forget it or go back no matter how much he tries to."

"He said that he will stay away from me," Lily pointed out as if this was a clicher.

Alcyone just smiled a smug, superior smile that made Lily worry for both her and Scorpius. "Don't worry about that. Leave it to me and I'll sort everything out," she said with a decided air.

Lily decided that it would be impossible to go against Alcyone's wishes even if she wanted to. For the first time since early that morning, she felt a bubble of happiness and a small amount of hope.

Ginny smiled at the disconsolate Harry when she walked in after a busy day at the Daily Prophet. He grunted in response to her greeting. He was sitting at the kitchen table, tearing his hair out as he chewed on the end of his quill. "Writing to Lily?" Ginny asked.

Harry nodded and sighed, "Why is this so difficult?" he asked.

Ginny gave him a wry smile, "Because she's your daughter and she doesn't accept how things are just because she is told that is the way that they are."

Harry looked at her in surprise, "Are you sure that trait isn't from you, love?"

"Nope," Ginny said, shaking her head, "It's completely Potter. You never accepted the status quo once when we were young. You went out and shaped your own destiny despite all the odds stacked against you."

Harry got up and kissed his wife, "Have I told you lately how much I love you?"

"Taking me out for dinner so I don't have to cook would tell me that perfectly," Ginny replied.

Harry smiled at his wily wife, "Go have a shower and change and I take you to that new restaurant you've wanted to try for ages now."

"I think it's my turn to tell you how much I love you now," Ginny said cheekily.

Harry looked at the letter he had penned to his daughter. It had taken the whole afternoon to draft and the rubbish bin was full of his previous, unsuccessful drafts. He went over to where Wendelin was perched and attached the letter, sending her off to Hogwarts. He had been more open with her than he initially had planned to be but he felt now was not the time to hold more things back. He hoped that Lily would look beyond her anguish and hurt and understand the reasons he'd given in his letter.

Lily's heart pounded as the owls flew into the Great Hall. She spotted her dad's owl and knew that she had an answer. She wasn't sure how she felt about this or even if she dared to read it. She wasn't sure that she wanted to know everything now if it made her feel so upset towards her dad. Wendelin landed in front of Lily, dropping the parchment from her dad. She gave her a piece of toast before the owl flew off, obviously not expecting an immediate response. Lily hesitated before opening the letter. She glanced up and saw two pairs of silver eyes watching her. She smiled half-heartedly at the siblings and ripped her dad's reply open.

_Dear Lily,_

_I can't say I wasn't surprised by your letter. I guess I should have expected you to find out sooner or later but, to be honest, I was hoping it would be later. I'm not going to try and make excuses for lying to you about Hermione. I know it has hurt you a lot. The breakdown of our friendship is still something that makes me sad. I think that for me Hermione did die the day that she became a Malfoy. _

So far Lily wasn't too impressed with her dad's attempts at explaining himself. She didn't think that marrying a Malfoy should have cancelled out years of friendship, especially a friendship that was forged in defeating a dangerous dark wizard. Then again, she thought, as she caught a glimpse of Scorpius, she wasn't exactly unbiased when it came to the Malfoys. She could see perfectly what Hermione had seen in her Malfoy man.

_I can see you rolling your eyes already. I'm not stupid and I realise that you have never carried on the grudge with the Malfoys that both your brothers have. In my defence, Draco Malfoy made my life a misery in school, attempted to kill me several times and was outrageously awful to Hermione throughout our schooling. He was a nasty, cruel, bigoted boy who never missed an opportunity to bully those who he deemed were beneath him. He was also responsible for the death of Albus Dumbledore and the scarring of your Uncle Bill by the werewolf, Fenrir Greyback. He became a Death Eater at sixteen and let other Death Eaters into the school. He may have failed in his mission to kill Dumbledore but Severus Snape had to do it for him. His father and mother weren't any better. His father was a Death Eater during both wizarding wars and was responsible for some awful acts including nearly killing your mother by planting Tom Riddle's diary on her during her first year at Hogwarts which resulted in her being locked in the Chamber of Secrets._

_I guess Ron and I couldn't, and still can't, understand how she could look beyond that and marry him. I would like to think that Malfoy has changed, as Hermione insisted when she told us the news, but it was a very Malfoy move to marry a war heroine when the Malfoy stock is so low. The Malfoys are consummate opportunists and it was no longer politically expedient to be firm believers in the pureblood ideology any more once Voldemort was dead. Marrying Hermione and having little half-blood heirs was a smart political move that did much to reinstate the Malfoy name in the community. Hermione Granger was the smartest witch I ever knew, but she was also incredibly naïve when it came to men, so I can see how Malfoy could have charmed her. _

_I hope this goes someway to explaining why I lied about Hermione. Please forgive me for doing so. I also hope it also sheds further light into why we felt the need to cut all ties when she became a Malfoy. I know a lot of this information is new for you and is unpleasant. I have wanted nothing more than to protect you from the nasty truths of the past. The Malfoys have always meant trouble for families like ours and doubt it has changed hugely even with Hermione's influence. The fact that they are all Slytherins speaks volumes in this respect._

_Much love,_

_Dad_

Lily sat at the Gryffindor table with the letter in her shaking hands. It seemed that after years of knowing little to nothing about the realities of her father's trials and tribulations during the war, she now knew unvarnished truths. Dad had always told stories of seemingly jolly jaunts of knocking out trolls and freeing his godfather from Dementors using condemned Thestrals and time-turners. Even the stories of Death Eaters had been fairly innocuous, he always made it seem that they were easily bested. But now reading his letter about the Malfoy family made her understand why her father and uncle hated them so much. It wasn't pretty. She'd thought the hatred was based on Quidditch grudges and silly name calling. She didn't imagine that it was due to the Malfoys trying to murder them. Lily thought back to her encounter with Draco Malfoy and was hard pressed to see how such a poised and elegant man could have been a Death Eater at sixteen. _Sixteen_! That was only one year older than her and younger than Scorpius was now, which brought her back to her dilemma with Scorpius. He was right; her family would never accept her being in a relationship with him. How could they when his family had caused so much damage to hers. How could _she_ have feelings for _him_ with all this history behind them? If his father and grandfather had succeeded in their plans, then she wouldn't exist because her mum and dad would be dead.

Lily couldn't stay seated at the table any longer. She needed to get out. She got up and rushed from the hall as quickly as she could without drawing too much attention to herself.

Alcyone watched Lily turn pale as she read the letter. She sat still for a long while staring at the parchment before running out of the Great Hall. Alcyone took one look at Scorpius, whose attention hadn't wavered from the Gryffindor girl. He nodded in answer to her unspoken question. It didn't take Alcyone too long to follow Lily outside. She was already halfway to the lake before Alcyone managed to catch her up.

"Lily, wait!" she called.

"Go away, please, Alcyone. I can't speak to you right now."

"Was the letter from your dad?"

Lily stopped and turned to face the blonde Slytherin. "Enough, please. I can't cope with anything else today."

"What's wrong, Lily. Tell me what's upset you so much."

Lily flourished the letter in Alcyone's face. "Your brother was right. Nothing can happen between us. A Potter and a Malfoy, it's impossible."

"Why?" Alcyone asked baldy.

Lily sighed, calmed down slightly and resignedly said, "My dad held nothing back this time. I asked him for the truth and I got it. He told me all about your dad, Death Eater aged sixteen and responsible for letting Death Eaters into Hogwarts. _Our_ school. You know what happened to my uncle Bill that night?"

Alcyone shook her head, unable to say anything else. "He was mauled by Fenrir Greyback. A werewolf. My uncle always made light of his scars, saying it gave him a wolfish edge. Now I know your dad was reason for it."

Alcyone was frozen to the spot. She knew the sins of her father. He'd made sure that he'd told all his children about them before they went to Hogwarts. He had hidden nothing from them, but to hear them from someone she had considered fast becoming a friend, was another matter altogether.

"And then he told me about your grandfather who nearly killed my mum. How can we get past that, tell me Alcyone?" Lily then looked away from the girl standing in front of her and looked out over the lake. "I'm not even sure I want to get past it," she whispered, hugging herself.

Alcyone looked at Lily for a good minute or so but Lily wasn't looking at her or going to add anything else. Alcyone turned round and walked slowly back to the castle. She hadn't got far before her brother materialised and pulled her in for a hug. "Don't worry about it. We heard it all before, remember." He whispered in her ear.

"I wanted it to be different this time. I wanted her to be different for you."

"I know but I also know that there are some things that cannot be changed. How Potters view Malfoys is one of those things," he replied.

Alcyone just rested her head on his shoulder and stifled the sobs. He didn't need her to break down and cry right now no matter unfair life could be to them.

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><p><strong>AN: I know, I know, she's been a complete bitch to Alcyone and Scorpius but, in her defence, she's just found out nasty things about the Malfoys.<strong>

**I'm trying to keep this as believable as possible with Harry not telling his kids the unvarnished truth of the war. A lot of war veterans don't talk about their experiences during the war. My own grandfather never told us anything about his time as an RAF WW11 bomber pilot, being shot down or kept in a German prison of war camp for 4 years. The only information we have about his war comes from a scrapbook of newspaper clippings that his mother made about him.**

**Please review :) **


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: Sorry it's taken me a while to post. I've been concentrating on finishing my other story which I have now done and so am free to continue writing this one again.**

**Disclaimer: The world of Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 6<strong>

Lily moped for the better part of the next two weeks around the castle. Patrols with Alcyone were strained at best and damn right unpleasant the majority of the time. The friendship that had sprung up had withered away in the face of the past and Lily's reaction to that past. Lily was now treated to the icy Malfoy façade and she didn't like it. It was Saturday afternoon and Lily was sulking in the Gryffindor common room.

"Right, that's enough. I'm fed up of this sulking. You're coming for a walk with me," Rose said in a no nonsense voice.

Lily slunk further into the cushions, "I don't want to go outside, besides it's raining."

"No it isn't. It was raining three days ago, now we have brilliant autumnal sunshine which you are going to make the most of."

Lily pouted at her cousin and refused to move. Rose huffed in annoyance, "Lily Luna Potter, get your miserable backside off that sofa now before I stupefy you and levitate you outside."

Lily glared in response but got up, knowing full well that Rose would make good on her threat.

Once they were outside and nearing the lake, Rose cut to the chase. "Lily, this moping over the Malfoys is beyond ridiculous now."

Lily gasped; she'd never mentioned anything to her cousin about her forbidden feelings for the eldest Malfoy or her budding friendship with his sister. "I don't know what you mean," she said, trying to bluster it out.

Rose snorted, "I'm not blind and I am my mother's daughter which means I see more than people expect me to. You've had a crush on Scorpius Malfoy since laying eyes on him and I know you and Alcyone got friendly before whatever news you got from your father a couple of weeks ago."

Lily cursed the Lovegood insight. Despite how spaced out and loopy her aunt Luna could seem, everyone knew that she could sense things other people couldn't. Her daughter, Rose, had inherited little from her mother but it appeared she had gained this annoying trait from her mum.

"Your behaviour since this happened is now forcing me to intervene and you are not allowed back into the castle until you tell me exactly what is going on."

Bowed by this forceful command from Rose, Lily tearfully told her what had happened. Rose tutted and huffed over her young cousin's feelings for Scorpius Malfoy and the fact that he appeared to return them. She narrowed her eyes in reaction to Lily's conversations with Alcyone but she only sighed sadly when Lily told her about her dad's letter and what she had found out.

"Mum really disapproves of the fact that Uncle Harry has hidden the truth about Hermione from you. She cautioned him against doing so. Dad would have followed suit but mum forbad it and sat us down to tell us ages ago."

"Why didn't you say anything to me?"

"Lily, it wasn't my place to go against your parent's wishes in this. I know I rebel against a lot of the Weasley family rules but nothing this fraught."

"It hurts, Rosie," Lily said sadly.

"I know but, as much as I hate to admit it, Malfoy is right. You would be going against your whole family and for what, a relationship that may only last until he graduates."

"I really care for him. I thought that if I tried to suppress these feelings and carry on with my life then I would get over it but I'm not. I miss him and I miss Alcyone. I said some really hurtful things to her too."

"You were pretty bitchy but I guess that's understandable considering the history you'd just been told about their family."

"I was wrong in one thing though, I shouldn't have held it against Scorpius and Alcyone. I would be so hurt if someone did the same to me."

"Give yourself a bit of a break; you were understandably upset at the things Uncle Harry had just revealed to you. The goings on during the war were nasty. My own mum was imprisoned in the dungeons at Malfoy Manner for a good few months."

Lily felt overwhelming sadness at this revelation. It seemed whenever she got a little hopeful that she and Scorpius could work out, more awful news about the Malfoy family was released which made her feel that things were impossible once more.

Rose was astute enough to follow where Lily's mind had gone, "Look, I know I'm breaking a Weasley commandment here, but in defence of Draco Malfoy, he was incredibly young when he became a Death Eater. His upbringing didn't give him much hope of breaking out of that mould and Lord Voldemort was stationed at Malfoy Manor for that last year. I can't see many sixteen-year-olds managing to rethink their values in that kind of environment."

Lily looked at Rose, "Yeah but our dads were just as young as he was and they did good things during the war."

Rose smiled, "If you ever tell dad I said this, I'll hex you until you think you're a flobberworm, but my dad followed his family just like Mr Malfoy followed his. If their roles had been reversed, it is very likely that dad would have done just as Mr Malfoy did."

Lily giggled mischievously at Rose's blasphemous words. "I guess. I never really looked at it that way."

"I'll let you into another secret whilst I'm spilling them all," Lily leant forward eagerly; keen to hear what Rose had to say. "It was my mum who reintroduced Hermione to Draco Malfoy. He bumped into mum in Diagon Alley and apologised to her for all that she suffered under his roof. They met a few times without dad knowing. It was all very innocent," Rose stressed when she saw the scandalised look on Lily's face. "But mum never told dad, knowing that he would flip out. He was keen to apologise for his actions and I think he hoped that mum would somehow pass his apologies on. Well mum thought long and hard about what to do and she decided that she'd test the waters by bringing Hermione along to one of their meetings. She knew that Hermione was the least explosive member of the Golden Trio and would be more inclined to listen to what Draco Malfoy had to say rather than just hex him into oblivion. Hermione, being the feisty witch she is, threw a complete hissy fit when she saw Draco Malfoy sitting there but calmed down long enough to hear him and mum out. Soon they were meeting without mum and the rest, they say, is history."

"Does Aunty Luna ever feel guilty that this meeting led to the end of Hermione's friendship with dad and Uncle Ron?" Lily asked curiously. "It was her decision to bring Hermione along that destroyed the Golden Trio."

"No, she doesn't really but mainly because she disapproves of dad and Uncle Harry's actions. She just doesn't make a big deal out of it, especially at family gatherings because she knows it's not the time or the place. She also recognises that a rapprochement between the Weasleys and the Malfoys is unlikely. There is so much bad blood between the families."

"I feel like my head is going to explode. I've learnt too many family secrets in the past month or so," Lily complained.

Rose smiled kindly at the confused young girl, "I'm not going to lay the law down a la Albus but Lily, I want you to think long and hard about whether Scorpius Malfoy is what you want or not. If he is then by all means fight for him, but you need to make sure that you are prepared for all the arguments and heartache that will follow."

"That's just it; I haven't spent enough time with him to be sure. I know I sound wishy-washy but how can I possibly decide something that major on a couple of conversations and a kiss?"

"If you want my advice then I suggest you go and make it up with Alcyone. If I know anything of the current Malfoy siblings it's this, you'll never get anywhere with one if you are at outs with another one. They are very like the Weasleys in that sense. Once you're back friends with her, and then see where things go with Scorpius."

Rose then left Lily sitting by the lake to think everything out.

It took Lily a good few days to get the guts to go and talk to Alcyone. She was testing the stereotype that Gryffindors are brave with her timidity to approach the Slytherin. In the end, she did it on the spur of the moment when she saw Alcyone sitting alone in the Quidditch stands. Lily ran over before Alcyone could see her and disappear.

"Alcyone, please can I talk to you for a minute?" Lily asked.

The impassive face of Alcyone turned her way for a brief second, before resuming her studying. "If you must, Lily, but please make it short, I'm rather busy at the moment."

Lily looked down on the floor, not sure where to start. She twisted her hands together as she tried to order her thoughts into a coherent structure. "I just wanted to apologise for my actions the other week. I was out of order and I said some truly hurtful things that I didn't mean at all."

Alcyone nodded in acknowledgement but still refused to look at Lily. "If that's all, then I accept your apology."

"I want us to try and be friends again. I miss you," Lily said, swallowing all her pride.

Alcyone looked up at the raven haired girl this time and saw the sincere contriteness in her eyes and the anxious facial expression. She softened even before she had made a conscious decision to do so. "I'm not going to lie to you, Lily, you hurt me a lot with your words. My dad deliberately told us about his past and his role as a Death Eater. Maybe not specifics, like your Uncle Bill, but what he did in general and not because he's proud of himself, but because he knew that'd we come across those who'd look to throw his past in our faces. And he was right, almost as soon as any Malfoy stepped foot in Hogwarts, we had the majority of the Gryffindor House on our case, trying to show us that we are nothing but Death Eater scum. You were different, you are the Potter Princess but you left us alone and that made a real difference, especially for me, Maia and Cepheus. Your Gryffindor contemporaries weren't so keen to go against your example even if the older years did. Poor Scorpius, he had your older brothers on his case which made him fair game for any Gryffindor, even the seventh-years when he was a first-year."

Lily blushed for her brother's conduct and the unfairness of it all in general. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to lash out at you like that," Lily whispered.

"I know and I get that you'd just found out some really hard things that weren't going to make you charitable towards any Malfoy, even ones who weren't alive at the time. But it didn't mean that it didn't hurt."

"Do you think we could start over? Pretend my outburst never happened?"

Alcyone smiled warmly, "I'd like that. I'm not one to hold a grudge despite my family's reputation. I definitely get that from the Granger side of my family."

Lily grinned back at the blonde, "So I guess I'll see you around?"

"Yep, aren't we patrolling tonight?"

"Yeah, I think so. See you in the Prefects' Office in a few hours then."

Alcyone waved and got back to writing her Transfiguration essay with a much lighter heart. Lily too walked back to the castle feeling as if she was floating on air. It was amazing how much better she felt knowing that she'd apologised and cleared the air with Alcyone.

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><p><strong>AN2: Sorry, it's a bit of filler chapter but there was information that Lily had to find out and of course she had to make up with Alcyone again.<strong>

**For those of you who were curious as to who Ron's wife is, I hope you aren't disappointed. I love Luna and did like the chemistry between them in OOTP. I also thought Luna would be the kind of person who would be quick to forgive Draco and could possibly reintroduce Draco and Hermione.**

**Please review :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: I know, I know, I'm a terrible person who has completely been neglecting this story. I've been consumed with writing the first chapters of a new Dramione I've started to post and have struggled to work on this story at the same time. **

**Disclaimers: I keep forgetting to add these in but suffice to say, I don't own Harry Potter and never will. This will be true for all the chapters I post!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 7<strong>

Scorpius watched as his sister and Lily Potter sat at a library table, studying together and giggling every now and again over some whispered gossip. He was pleased that Lily had sought out his sister to apologise for the way she'd reacted. He knew that Alcyone was always more affected than she let on when people threw her family's past misdeeds in her face. She'd been really hurt when Lily had said that they couldn't be friends because of her grandfather and father's role in the war. Both the Malfoy siblings had been surprised by Lily's actions, she had never been involved in any inter-house rivalry. The new-found friendship of Alcyone and Lily had set Hogwarts alight. A Slytherin and a Gryffindor being good friends was unusual but a Malfoy and Potter with a Weasley mother was unheard of. Scorpius smirked somewhat as he saw, on the opposite side of the library, Albus Potter sitting there watching his sister's interaction with a narrowed glare.

Scorpius frowned as he looked down at his Ancient Runes essay. Whilst he was happy that his sister could be and was friends with Lily Potter, it didn't make it any easier for me. He didn't think he could feel this way about someone who wasn't a member of his family. But the feelings he had for Lily weren't going away and he getting frustrated with his stubborn heart. She wasn't possible and if he was smart then he'd settle for one of the purebloods in his house. Despite being a halfblood, Scorpius Malfoy was still incredibly eligible in the pureblood world. The money that his family had went a long way to removing the taint of his mother's muggle birth. Scorpius hated this hypocrisy but knew that his fate as a Malfoy was most likely one of the daughters of a 'good' pureblood family, who would overlook his blood status and most likely treat his mum with patronising condensation. His grandfather, Lucius, was already talking about a match with one of the Pucey or Nott daughters. Having grown up around his loving parents, Scorpius didn't want to settle for an arranged, 'good' marriage based on money and blood status. Scorpius sighed; he wouldn't put Lily through the hell a relationship with him would release. He didn't care how much Alcyone railed at him for being stubborn or how much she said he wouldn't find someone as good as Lily again, it wasn't to be. Besides, he already knew it was unlikely he would find an acceptable pureblood who would have an ounce of Lily's appeal, which brought him back to Albus Potter, who was very unhappy with his sister's conduct. Imagine how angry he'd be if he knew that Scorpius Malfoy had kissed his little sister.

"What the hell does she think she's doing?" Albus whispered fiercely to Rose

"She's making friends with a Slytherin apparently," Rose replied.

"A Malfoy Slytherin, how could she want to be friends with her?"

"Albus, you do realise the war is over, right?" Rose sighed.

"No thanks to that family," he snarled back.

"You really need to get over this. The rivalry isn't healthy at all."

"Does Uncle Ron know about these feelings of yours? If I remember correctly, he told you to stay the hell away from Scorpius Malfoy on Platform nine and three-quarters at the start of our first year."

Rose rolled her eyes, "Just imagine if I did everything dad told me to do. And don't you dare think of running back to Uncle Harry with this news."

"Why not? Dad could probably talk some sense into her?"

"Or Lily will just hex you into oblivion. Just let her be. It's not a crime for her to be friends with Alcyone Malfoy."

Albus grumbled at this, "I guess. At least she's not as bad as that awful brother of hers."

Rose didn't think now was the time to inform Albus that Lily had tender feelings towards that particular Malfoy. Rose may not see the attraction of Scorpius and may well have warned Lily off him in the past, but if the girl wanted him, then Rose wasn't stupid enough to think that she would be deterred. She was more like her mother than anyone ever thought. At least Scorpius Malfoy seemed to realise the trouble he would bring into Lily's life if he became her boyfriend. Rose was grateful that inscrutable blond was keeping his distance from his sister's new best friend.

"My brother is such a stubborn arse," Alcyone moaned to Lily.

"I sympathise with that. At least you don't have two older, incredibly stubborn brothers."

"Yeah, at least Cepheus listens to me as his older sister."

Lily snorted, "That boy worships you and you take advantage of him shamelessly."

Alcyone smiled, "Well what are younger siblings for, if not to fetch and carry things for you?"

Lily poked her tongue out at her cheeky friend, "Hey! I resent that as a younger sibling. Imagine if James and Albus thought they could get away with that with me."

Alcyone laughed, earning a reproving shush from Madam Pince. "I can't imagine either of your brothers getting away with bossing you about."

"Doesn't stop them from trying," Lily whined. "I had Albus giving me a big lecture the other day about befriending you and I'm sure he's written to James so I expect a howler to come from him soon."

"Your brothers make me laugh. Do you think they'll ever learn that you've inherited your mother's ingenious way with nasty hexes?"

Lily giggled, "How did you know about that?"

"My mum told me. Apparently my dad has been on the end of her bat bogey hex more than once."

Lily looked towards Scorpius trying to imagine what he'd look like being attacked by giant, flying bogeys. She couldn't and dissolved into giggles that had both girls kicked out the library by the stern librarian. Lily stood in the corridor clutching her stomach which was hurting from laughing so much. Alcyone just stood there confused over what had Lily in such hysterics.

Lily looked up at her perplexed friend, "It's just so funny. Can you imagine Scorpius being attacked by the bat bogey hex? It would mess his hair up and he'd be so angry."

Alcyone starting laughing too, she had to admit either her dad or Scorpius being on the end of that particular hex was amusing. Both men were too elegant for their own good and they'd look ridiculous.

A week later, Alcyone received a letter from her mum with instructions to open it only when she was alone.

_Dear Alcyone,_

_I hope you are well and you are not having too much trouble because of your friendship with Lily Potter. I must admit I am proud that you were able to see beyond her first reaction to the news of the Malfoy past and forgive her._

_I'm writing because I'm worried about Scorpius. His letters home this year seem a lot more subdued than usual. He hasn't once written to your father about the Quidditch team and didn't even seem particularly bothered by his huge victory over Ravenclaw the other day._

_Is there anything he's not telling us which is making him sad?_

_Lots of Love,_

_Mum_

_P.s I've included a study planner for you. It's your OWL year and never too early to start preparing for your exams._

Alcyone groaned when she opened the study planner and it's started shrieking instructions at her. Her mum was obsessive about exams. Every Easter she would write to her children every day to make sure they had started revising. Scorpius had already warned her that she'd almost had a nervous breakdown during his OWL year she was so nervous that he wouldn't get O's in every subject and it seemed she would do the same for her this year. At least she'd also have Scorpius' NEWTs to get over wrought about too.

Having two intelligent parents was a bonus on most levels but it also had it's downside in the fact that they were too perceptive when it came to their children's well being. Alcyone knew that she would have to tell her mum the situation with Scorpius which she felt was breaking a sibling code of conduct. Then again, her brother needed a kick up the backside. He was making himself miserable staying away from Lily and he was also making her friend upset too. Maybe having her mum get involved would be a good thing. No-one understood the sacrifices one was prepared to make for love more than Hermione Malfoy.

Scorpius was preparing for the weekly prefect meeting when Lily walked in. She was early and hadn't expected anyone to be in the office yet. She paused on the threshold when she saw that Scorpius was there. "Oh," she said and blushed.

Scorpius looked up and saw the pretty girl hesitating on whether to come in by the door. "Hi Lily, come in. I've just finished sorting out the lists of students going to Hogsmeade on Halloween."

Lily stepped in. Her heart was pounding fit to burst out of her chest. She hadn't been alone or spoken to Scorpius since he'd kissed her in the Owlery. She felt tongue-tied and nervous but her brain was screaming at her to take advantage of the fact that he couldn't ignore her here.

"How are things going?" Lily asked, before shouting at herself for asking such a stupid, mundane question.

"Oh you know, Professor McGonagall has had to write home again to some parents because slips have gone missing et cetera. It always amazes me how many students manage to lose their slips between the summer and the end of October."

Lily smiled. In her third-year, her father had made sure that she had her slip kept somewhere safe. His uncle and aunt had refused to sign his slip when he'd reached his third-year and Harry didn't want any of his kids to have to stay back at Hogwarts whilst all their friends went to Hogsmeade because they'd lost their slip.

"Congratulations on your victory over Ravenclaw. It was pretty impressive."

Scorpius grinned impishly, he'd seen her watching from the Gryffindor stands and had been motivated to play harder than ever. It was childish to want to impress her with his skills as a seeker but he was pleased she had noticed. "Thanks, I think we have a good chance of retaining the Quidditch Cup this year."

"Oh, I wouldn't get so cocky just yet. Gryffindor have a good team this year and you haven't seen them play yet."

"Really? I hear you guys lost Charlotte MacGregor to a nasty training accident. She's your best chaser."

"She _was_ our best chaser," Lily said with a cheeky smile on her face.

Scorpius' quirked an eyebrow, "So you have a new chaser that you think very highly of. Hmmm I wonder who it could be," he teased.

"I'm not spilling any of our secrets to you."

"I wonder, could it be a girl, say, about yay height," he said, putting his hand at exactly Lily's height. "Does she have messy black hair, green eyes and a famous dad by any chance?" He asked.

Lily wrinkled her nose and put her hands on her hips, "You knew already!" she complained.

"Yep, I had my spies out and about at your next training session as soon as MacGregor got injured."

"Sneaky snake," Lily complained.

Scorpius smirked at her and tapped the Slytherin snake monogram on his jumper.

Amelia Bones walked in at that precise moment and said "Sorry, am I interrupting anything."

Both Scorpius and Lily jumped back, just noticing how close they'd got to each other at that point. They looked away from each other, looking self-conscious. Amelia suppressed a laugh. The longing looks her Head Boy had been sharing with the Potter girl hadn't escaped her noticed. Personally, she thought they were perfectly suited but knew that politics in the post-Voldemort wizarding world weren't that easy.

"Just discussing our teams' prospects for the Quidditch cup this year. Lily here is the new Gryffindor chaser."

"Oh, congratulations, Lily," Amelia said. "Although I hate to disappoint the pair of you, but its Hufflepuff's year this year."

It was testament to the strength of the Hufflepuff team that neither Lily or Scorpius scoffed. Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff was coming up next month and it was definitely a crunch match.

The Prefects' Office began to fill up as the meeting time approached. Lily sat down in the usual place favoured by the Gryffindor prefects and tried not to stare too much at Scorpius. The meeting passed slowly and she was glad when she could finally escape.

"Ok, Potter, spill it," Alcyone said, catching up with the quickly fleeing Gryffindor.

"Spill what?"

"What's happened that's made you all flushed with suppressed excitement."

"You're too perceptive for your own good. It's like having two Rose's in my life and that's not a good thing."

Alcyone smiled, "If you think I'm bad then you should sit down with mum. Nothing passes her beady eyes."

"It must have been a nightmare when mum, your mum and Aunt Luna were friends. No-one's secrets would be safe."

"Enough with the distraction techniques. It's not going to work. I want the gossip so give it up."

Lily sighed, knowing that Alcyone wouldn't stop bugging her until she repeated, word for word, her conversation with Scorpius. She pulled her into a nearby empty classroom and told everything to the nosey blonde.

Alcyone jumped up and down, clapping her hands and squealed, "I knew that stupid brother of mine couldn't keep it up for long."

"It was one conversation, nothing to get too excited about."

"He was totally flirting with you."

Lily blushed and giggled. It was a small start but at least it was a start.

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><p><strong>AN: Lily seems to be back on track with Scorpius. Please review and let me know what you think.<strong>


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: See how good I am! I'm updating right on schedule and this is hot off the press so please excuse any typos and grammatical mistakes. I've only read through it once.**

**Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine, it all belongs to JK Rowling.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 8<strong>

Lily felt like she was literally walking on air. She'd been 'accidentally' bumping into Scorpius all week. Their conversations had gone from slightly awkward to consistently flirty. Lily felt as she knew Scorpius well now and the small amount of fear she'd felt about her actions regarding the tall, enigmatic Slytherin had been completely laid to rest. She knew that he was completely worth the fight that she was going to have to have with her family to be with him. He was smart, funny and sweet all wrapped up in one impossibly sexy package. The barriers he'd erected after the kissing incident in the Owlry had started to fall. It certainly paid off to have a sneaky Slytherin in the ranks fighting for you. It was made doubly valuable when said sneaky Slytherin had intimate knowledge of your quarry because she happened to be his meddlesome sister. Lily was currently on her way to meet Alcyone. They were concocting a daring plan that would have Scorpius spending the next day in Lily's company. It was Halloween tomorrow and the first Hogsmeade trip of the year; the perfect time to get Scorpius to spend more than few stolen moments with Lily. She also had hopes that she'd be able to possibly sneak another kiss from him.

Lily giggled as she covertly peered around the corridor leading into the empty Charms corridor that she'd arranged to meet Alcyone in. She wasn't being very good at the whole quiet thing but really she was too excited about tomorrow and finding the sneaking situation that Alcyone seemed to like too amusing not to laugh. An answering giggle from inside the classroom meant that Alcyone was already there and waiting for her. She walked in and stopped when she saw that Alcyone wasn't alone, she was accompanied by a tall, dark Slytherin who Lily had never spoken to. She wasn't sure what his name was, Zambini or something.

"Great, another giggling girl to cope with," The boy snarked.

Alcyone shushed him whilst she gave Lily a hug. "Lily, I don't think you've met Marco Zabini before," she said motioning to the lounging against the wall, looking bored.

"Hi, Zabini," Lily said a little shyly. Despite her relaxation around Alcyone and Scorpius, she hadn't had too much interaction with any other Slytherins and was still a little wary of them.

"Potter," he responded. "I don't know how any of your parents managed to be war heroes with the amount of noise and _giggling_ the pair of you make when you're trying to meet covertly."

Alcyone cuffed the insolent boy around the head, "War heroes? Purlease, her dad is Harry Potter, Chosen One and my mum is Hermione Granger, Brightest Witch of the Age. Be respectful and give them their proper titles, saviours of the wizarding world."

Zabini just rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I'm a Slytherin remember. You'll have to torture me to get me to me to admit two Gryffindorks are saviours of anything."

Lily huffed and put her hands on her hips, "Hello Gryffindor in the room, remember!"

"And not just any Gryffindor but the Potter Princess," Alcyone remarked.

"If this is how you two are going to interact, then I'm going to have to leave. You, Alcyone, are sounding far too Granger-ish for my liking."

The patented Malfoy smirk appeared on Alcyone's lips, "Is that so, Zabini. I'll remember to tell my darling mother that when you come over during the Christmas break."

Marco Zabini paled, the thought of Hermione Malfoy on the warpath was scary. She had silenced any murmurings about her tainting the Malfoy blood by sheer force of personality. She was pretty much the apple of Lucius Malfoy's eye. No-one could ever have predicted that when he was Death Eater and chasing her through the Department of Mysteries during her fifth-year at Hogwarts. None of the still purely pureblood families dared to snub the Malfoys or call them blood traitors. Lucius Malfoy may well have had a change of heart regarding muggles and muggle-borns but he'd lost none of the menace that had made him a formidable Death Eater. Marco gulped, facing Hermione Malfoy was bad enough but throwing Lucius into the mix at the same time was suicidal.

"Ok, that was a completely Malfoy move," Zabini said, glaring at the girls as they laughed at how scared he'd got at the prospect of Alcyone repeating his words back at Malfoy Manor.

Alcyone just winked at him and turned her attention back to Lily. "Anyway, I've come up with a foolproof plan to get you and Scorpius together tomorrow. Marco here has volunteered," Zabini cleared his throat, clearly protesting this assertion, "Marco here has been coerced," Alcyone amended, "to help me out by letting me hex him so that he needs Madam Pomfrey's attention."

Lily looked at the sulking Slytherin's clearing unhappy face, "How did you manage to get him to do that?" she asked, clearly doubting the resolve of Zabini to go through with the plan.

"I threatened to tell Scorpius that Marco kissed me during the summer. Several times," The blonde Slytherin menace said happily.

Lily couldn't help but smile as Marco Zabini once more gulped in fear of what would happen to him if Scorpius ever found out. "Nice," she said appreciatively.

"So, getting back to the plan, I'll get a Slytherin to find Scorpius to tell him that I arranged to meet you up by the Shrieking Shack but couldn't make it because I had to get Marco to the infirmary urgently."

"But why wouldn't the messenger just come and find me themselves?"

"Because I'll choose a particularly weedy second year specimen, Gordon Baddock. He's petrified of all Gryffindors and you Potters particularly. He thinks that you'll want to hurt him for some strange, stupid reason. His dad was a couple of years below our parents at school and, for some reason, Gordon thinks this is a reason for you to want to hurt him."

Marco muttered, "Pussy."

"Sorry, what was that, Marco?" Alcyone asked, raising her right eyebrow.

"Nothing, just a cough," he said, coughing unconvincingly.

"Hmmmm," was Alcyone's only response. "Anyway, what do you think?" She asked, turning back to the raven haired Gryffindor.

"Sounds like a plan if you ask me," Lily said, impressed with the manipulative nature of her friend.

"I told you it'll pay off having a Slytherin on your side," Alcyone said smugly.

"So when are the pair of you going to kiss?" Zabini asked.

Lily and Alcyone turned as one to confront the tall Slytherin. "Excuse me?" Lily spluttered.

"Do you want me to practice some of those hexes I'm contemplating hitting you with tomorrow right now?" Alcyone asked dangerously.

The dark Slytherin gulped once more. He wasn't a coward but these two girls were particularly fearsome, especially when you took their parentage into consideration.

"Ok, I was only hoping," he said, putting his hands up in the air in surrender.

"Pervert," Lily muttered.

"The only Slytherin Lily will be kissing is my brother, so get any other notions out of your head," Alcyone lectured.

Halloween dawned bright and clear. It was one of those lovely autumn days, when the trees blazed red and orange and the air was frosty and clean. Lily loved these days even more than she did summer. There was something so refreshing about clear, sunny autumnal days, as if the muggy heat of the summer was being blown away and replaced with never before breathed fresh air. Lily skipped down to breakfast in the Great Hall, blowing a kiss to Alcyone across the room and smiling cheekily at Marco Zabini after she did so. Both Slytherins smirked back at her. Nothing was going to dent her good mood.

"What was that all about?" Albus growled at her.

Nothing except maybe her annoying older brother. "Nothing, just saying good morning to Alcyone."

"Why the smile to Zabini?"

"No reason, he just came to chat to Alcyone the other day when I was there."

"I wish you'd stay away from those bloody Slytherins."

"What has Marco Zabini ever done? From what I've read, his father wasn't a supporter of Voldemort and his mother lived in Italy."

"He's a womaniser," Albus snarled.

"Jealous, O brother dearest?" Lily mocked.

"Am I not allowed to be worried about who my little sister is associating with?"

Rose rolled her eyes and butted in, "You've nothing to worry about Albus, if my sources are correct, and you know that they are never wrong, then Marco Zabini is head over heels in love with Alcyone Malfoy."

"Still," Albus grumbled, "I don't like you being friendly with him."

"Albus, I spoke to him once. That hardly makes him a friend," Lily protested.

"Just make sure you keep it that way," Albus ordered.

"Yes, sir," Lily saluted before turning it around into the one fingered salute.

"Those Slytherins are rubbing off on you. You'd never have been rude to your older brother before you became friends with that Malfoy girl," Albus moaned.

Both Rose and Lily burst out laughing. Lily could be docile a lot of the time but she had a severe dislike of being told what to do and had sworn at both her brothers many a time. Albus just grumbled under his breath.

Lily shivered slightly as she waited for Scorpius to 'rescue' her from waiting indefinitely for his sister. She'd wanted to look her best so was wearing a lighter jacket than was really sensible for the end of October. It was a pretty green colour, matching her eyes perfectly and was much better than her drab but toasty warm winter cloak. She stamped her feet trying to bring circulation back into her numb feet. She could have gone with her trainers but had decided to add some inches to height and look more feminine. Sadly, her boots, like her jacket, didn't provide much warmth. It was stupid really what girls will put their bodies through just to look their best for the boys they fancy. She blew warm breath into her gloved hands and hoped that Scorpius would show up soon.

"You've been at Hogwarts for five years now and you think that that is a smart outfit to wear on a frosty autumn day like this."

Lily turned around to see Scorpius leaning against a tree looking her up and down. The shivers this time had nothing to do with the cold and everything to do with his wintery grey gaze that somehow appeared warm.

"Yeah, well I stupidly just looked at the weather outside and not the temperature. I saw the sun and perked up," Lily lied.

"Silly girl," was Scorpius' response before taking off his cloak and engulfing her in it.

"Thanks," Lily smiled, breathing in his heavenly scent. "Not to appear rude or anything but why are you here? I believe I'm meeting another Malfoy, one a little shorter than you and a lot louder."

Scorpius cracked a smile at this description of his vivacious sister. "She sent me in her stead. Sorry for the disappointment."

Lily wasn't disappointed at all but refrained from letting him know that. "What's happened?"

"Marco Zabini managed to get himself hexed by some Ravenclaw and Alcyone has carted him off back to Hogwarts to see Madam Pomfrey."

"Oh, I hope he's ok," Lily said with false concern.

"He'll live, well he will as long as he keeps his hands off my sister."

"As a younger sister with annoyingly overbearing brothers, I can tell you that Alcyone won't appreciate that kind of thinking. You're sounding disturbingly like Albus."

Scorpius grimaced at the comparison. "Please, I think I'm scarred for life now."

Lily laughed, "Besides, I think Alcyone is big enough to look after herself."

"So you say, but no girl is safe around Zabini."

"I've heard the same said about you," Lily pointed out gently.

"You know how untrue that is," Scorpius replied.

"Sadly," Lily muttered under her breath. "Thanks for the cloak and passing the message on. I guess you'll need to be getting back to your friends now," Lily said out loud.

"No, I don't have any plans actually. Want to hang out with this Malfoy instead?"

Lily beamed a smile at him. So far today was working out perfectly. She called down a heap on blessings onto Alcyone's missing head. "That'd be great. I blew everyone off today to see Alcyone."

"What do you want to do?" Scorpius asked.

Lily thought about what they could do, which wasn't much considering Albus was roaming around Hogsmeade and would throw a grade A hissy fit if he saw her with Scorpius. "I guess stay here?"

Scorpius raised his right eyebrow, "Albus?" he asked.

Lily nodded, "Yep, my brother will cause a massive scene if we waltz into The Three Broomsticks together. He can just about handle my hanging out with Alcyone."

"Good job I came prepared then," Scorpius said, leaning into her and fishing around in the pockets of his cloak and bringing out a couple of bottles of Butterbeer and a bag of sweets from Honeydukes.

They sat on a rock facing the Shrieking Shack sipping their drinks.

"Is Albus still giving you a hard time about being friends with Alcyone?" Scorpius asked.

"Yes and no. It's nothing I can't handle. He just likes to whine about things he doesn't like and can't control."

"And how are your cousins treating you?"

"Rose is great. She told me a lot of stuff including the fact that it was her mum, Aunt Luna who reintroduced your parents and played unwitting matchmaker."

"Looney Lovegood. Yeah, dad told me. He's fond of her, which is more than you can say for most people in that circle of friends," Scorpius smiled. "I'm glad that Rose is fine with your friendship with Alcyone."

"She knows about you."

Scorpius whipped his head around and stared at Lily.

"She told me she'd known for a while that I had a crush on you," Lily blushed. She'd never really mentioned her prior feelings to Scorpius before. She was pretty sure that he knew that she had liked him before Knockturn Alley but she didn't feel comfortable telling him. It was embarrassing.

"What does she think?" Scorpius asked, more concerned about what Rose Weasley thought that he wanted to be.

"She's fine with it. I told her about what happened in the Owlry. She told me that if you're what I want then I should go for it."

"Really?"

"Yes, that's when she told me about Aunt Luna's meetings with your dad. Aunt Luna apparently doesn't approve of how dad and Uncle Ron have treated Hermione. She refused to allow Uncle Ron to hide Hermione's existence and marriage from their kids hence why Rose knows."

"And she said she would be fine with the idea of you and I?" Scorpius was more than a little shocked.

"Well, yes. She wasn't exactly enthusiastic about it but she basically gave me her support if I want to go ahead and date you."

"Wow," was all Scorpius said, His famous façade deserting him in face of this mind-blowing news. Maybe it wouldn't be that hard for them to be together. They would have the support of Luna Lovegood and her daughter. And if his mum was to be believed, Weasley women, even those by marriage, were formidable.

"So," Lily said, looking down and twisting her hands nervously, "Would you like to give it a go?"

Scorpius looked down at the pretty girl sitting next to him. He still couldn't believe that she was willing to go against her family to be with him. It was a massive deal for him. That she liked him that much made him incredibly protective of her.

He leant down and tilted her chin up, "I'd love to give it a go but only if you are sure. I'm not half-hearted about anything, Lily, which means I will give this relationship my all."

"That's what makes me willing to fight my family for you. I know that you won't view this as a two month thing to pass your last year at Hogwarts."

"I would never do that to you. I would never put you in a position where you are at odds with your family and then turn around and ditch you."

Lily smiled up at him shyly. She was adorable, he thought. He certainly didn't think he deserved a girl as beautiful inside and out as she was. He felt privileged that she was prepared to go through potential hell for him. He lifted her up onto his lap and kissed her.

Lily couldn't believe how the day had gone. She's expected to have another flirty conversation with Scorpius where they dodged around the issue of them and her family. Instead, here they were, he was now her boyfriend and his warm lips were on hers causing shivers to run up and down her spine. She wrapped her arms around Scorpius' neck and pushed her fingers through his silky hair. She didn't think she could be happier.

Lily was pulled out of her blissful existence, entranced by Scorpius' kiss, by a fierce tug on her arm that had her tumbling out of Scorpius' lap onto the floor. She glared up at her assailant and into the furious eyes of her brother, Albus.

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><p><strong>AN: So Lily and Scorpius are finally a couple! But uh oh looks like the confrontation with the Potter-Weasley clan will be sooner rather than later.<strong>

**Please review and let me know what you think. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: I hope you've all forgiven me for leaving you with such an evil cliffhanger but look, I'm being super-good and updating a day before scheduled. Ok, so it's only one day but still … **

**Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine *sigh*.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 9<strong>

_Lily was pulled out of her blissful existence, entranced by Scorpius' kiss by a fierce tug on her arm that had her tumbling out of Scorpius' lap onto the floor. She glared up at her assailant and into the furious eyes of her brother, Albus._

Lily fell with a thud onto the floor. She felt a pain in her knee as it wrenched due to Albus' violent action.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" Albus thundered.

He was staring at Lily as if she had used an unforgivable curse on him. She tried to stand, thinking it would be better for this confrontation to happen if she was at least on her feet. Annoyingly her knee throbbed in pain and she collapsed back onto the floor.

"Well, are you going to answer me or what?" Albus demanded.

Scorpius stood and went to bend down to help Lily up, "Don't you touch her!" Albus yelled.

"Potter, if you calm down for just a minute, you'll see that Lily's hurt herself and cannot stand."

"Don't you tell me about my sister you-you-you pillock," Albus screamed.

Scorpius ignored Albus' hysterics and went to help Lily up again. He was stopped by Albus withdrawing his wand and pointing it at Scorpius' throat. "Back the hell away from my sister," Albus threatened.

Scorpius straightened up and looked straight at Albus. "I don't think you want to do that. I don't want to fight especially not when your sister is lying on the cold, frosty floor, hurt, but don't think that I won't knock you out if I have to."

Albus' wand didn't waver.

It took a frustrated scream from Lily for either boys' attention to return to her. "Albus, will you stop being a monumental prick and help me up. My knee is killing me and I want to get to the infirmary. If you care about me so much then you'll stop threatening Scorpius and make me your priority."

Scorpius moved and looked to help Lily once again. She sighed and waved Scorpius' helping hand away. Albus' temper was hanging on by a thread and if Scorpius did actually touch her then she thought her brother would completely lose it and start throwing hexes about.

"Albus, please can you give me your hand?" Lily asked.

Albus shook his head as if to clear it from the fog that was currently clouding his thought processes. He looked down at his sister who was currently sitting uncomfortably on the floor in a strange position, clutching her knee which did appear to be swelling at a rapid rate. He glared at the handsome blond who was currently standing slightly to the side of his little sister, itching to help. Albus wasn't having that. He stooped down and drew Lily up, keeping an arm around her waist to keep her steady.

"Look, can we just get me to the infirmary and then you can shout at me all you like?" Lily asked.

There wasn't much Albus could say to that. Lily did look in pain and Albus realised that he was unlikely to get any answers until she had her knee sorted out. "Put your arm around my shoulder and I'll help you down to the carriages in Hogsmeade," Albus said.

Scorpius frowned, that really wasn't an ideal way to help Lily. She shouldn't be putting any weight on that knee but then again Albus wasn't much taller than Lily so probably wouldn't be able to carry her all the way down to the village. Before Albus could do anything more than let loose a frustrated yell, Scorpius has scooped Lily up and strode off towards the pick up point for the carriages back to Hogwarts.

"What the …" was all Albus could bluster before Scorpius was out of sight around a bend.

He ran to catch up with the slimy snake currently in possession of his sister, "Put her down, Malfoy," Albus commanded.

Scorpius just looked at the enraged Gryffindor. "She's in pain and she shouldn't be putting weight on her knee. It would be better for her if she was carried back to Hogsmeade and you don't seem able to do so," was Scorpius' scornful reply.

"I'll hex you if you don't put her down," Albus warned, waving his wand about once more.

"That would be smart. Hex me and you'll injure your sister even more."

Lily frowned at the bickering pair of boys. This was the last thing she needed, she felt sick, slightly woozy and her knee felt as if it had been pulled apart. "Albus, just swallow your anger for five minutes, please. I just want to get to the infirmary," Lily pleaded with her older brother.

It was a strange group that marched through the village. Rose took one look at Lily's pale face, Malfoy's stern expression and the flushed, angry countenance of Albus and ran over. "What's happened?" she asked.

Lily just closed her eyes, really not in the mood for explanations right now. The silence from the other two meant that it was going to be up to Lily to tell Rose what was happening.

"Albus caught Scorpius and I kissing, pulled me away wrenching my knee and now they are arguing about how to get me back to Hogwarts," Lily said concisely ignoring the stunned look on Rose's face.

Finally, they reached the carriages. Lily had never been so happy to see them. Scorpius gently put her into one before Albus elbowed him out of the way and jumped in next to his sister. Scorpius was about to snap at Albus when Rose put her hand on his arm. He looked down at the red-head in query. She just shook her head at him and got in sitting opposite Lily, leaving Scorpius the space opposite Albus. He scowled but didn't want to be left waiting down in Hogsmeade.

It was a silent awkward journey back up to Hogwarts. Lily winced every time the carriage jolted and the other three passengers looked everywhere but at each other. They finally reached Hogwarts, after what felt like hours. Rose pre-empted any potential battle for the possession of Lily by helping her out of the carriage and gesturing for Malfoy to pick her up again. Her glare towards Albus shut him up before he could complain.

"Why did you do that?" Albus whispered to Rose, as they followed Lily and Scorpius up the stairs.

"Because Lily can't hobble up hundreds of stairs, she needs to be carried and Malfoy is the strongest of us here."

"But its Malfoy," Albus persisted.

"Yes, it is, but for some reason your sister has a thing for him which he returns. I can't say I'm thrilled but what am I going to do? Forbid it? I'm not Lily's parents, thank Merlin," Rose reasoned.

"Well, I'm her brother and I do forbid it."

"Good luck," was Rose's only response.

Madam Pomfrey took one look at Lily's knee when Scorpius strode through the doors and waved him to put her into one of the beds.

There were curtains pulled around a bed opposite but they rustled and Alcyone poked her head out at the noise of the new people entering. She saw Lily, her brother, Albus and Rose and gasped. "What happened?" She asked.

Lily this time kept her eyes closed. She wasn't doing any more explaining. Scorpius could deal with his own sister.

"You!" Albus ejected. "This is all your fault."

"Me?" Alcyone responded confused, "How is it my fault? I wasn't even there."

"You turned Lily's head. One minute she's friends with you and the next minute she's snogging your brother."

Alcyone giggled, "Way to go, Scorpius," she said holding her hand out for a high-five.

Scorpius frowned at his exuberant younger sister, "I don't think now's the time for that," he said dryly.

"What's that? Scorpius has nabbed himself the Potter Princess," came a muffled shout from behind the curtain.

Scorpius pulled the curtain back revealing a very dishevelled looking Zabini.

"Some privacy would be appreciated," scowled the dark Slytherin.

Scorpius couldn't help but laugh at the state of his fellow housemate. Rose gasped as she saw the state of Zabini's face which was covered in thick pustules.

"I would say that it's an improvement," Scorpius teased much to the displeasure of Marco.

Albus was sulking on the sidelines but Marco Zabini's words had stirred him from his angry contemplation. "Malfoy hasn't _nabbed_ himself anything."

"Indeed," came Lily's incensed voice. "I'm not an object for anyone to 'nab'," she said directing a glare at the unrepentant Slytherin, Zabini, lying opposite her.

"Isn't it time for you to leave, Malfoy?" spat Albus?

Scorpius just raised an eyebrow, "Why?"

"You don't belong here. We've got Lily back to the infirmary, she's getting medical help so now you can piss off and leave her alone _for good_," Albus snarled.

Scorpius squared up to the shorter Gryffindor, "I don't care what you think, Potter. If Lily wants me about then you're going to have to deal with it."

"Please, like she wants you anywhere near her. She's just confused."

Lily closed her eyes and growled, "I'm not stupid, Albus and I am here so the pair of you can knock it off and stop talking about me as if I'm not in the room."

Madam Pomfrey bustled up, potion vials in hand. "I won't have a charged atmosphere in here, so you two can leave," she ordered, pointing at the two boys.

Scorpius and Albus didn't bother arguing. Madam Pomfrey ran her infirmary with a stern hand and what she said went. Scorpius walked over to Lily, stroked her cheek and bent over to give her a kiss on the forehead. Albus, fists clenched, watched this with furious eyes.

"Please go, Scorpius," Lily said, taking in her brother's anger, "And please, for me, don't do anything to Albus. He can be a pain in the arse but he's my brother and I love him."

Scorpius nodded at his witch. "Alcyone, come and find me when you leave," he said to his sister, before carelessly waving to Marco.

He opened the door and sauntered out, Albus following in his wake.

Rose caught Lily's eye. "You're crazy if you think I'm following and getting involved in whatever fight those two are going to have right now."

Lily just sighed. She knew that Scorpius would try and follow her wishes as much as he could but he would defend himself. She was worried about Albus' temper. He was hot-headed and passionate.

"So, you and Scorpius, huh," Alcyone said. She had a massive grin on her face and was bouncing on her chair excitedly.

Lily just blushed and was unable to look anyone in the eye. It was all still too new for her. She should have been coming to terms with it by holding Scorpius' hand and talking about nothing in particular. Instead, she was dealing with an injured knee and an outraged brother.

"I can try and keep Albus in check but you do realise he will tell Uncle Harry. I suggest you send off an owl as soon as possible," Rose advised.

"Yeah, I know. I didn't really want to be dealing with this right now but with Albus on the warpath it's better that mum and dad hear it from me first."

Lily felt herself tearing up. She really didn't want to deal with all of this now. She thought that she and Scorpius could have kept their relationship a secret for a little while; whilst she came to terms with how to tell her family but getting caught by Albus had made that impossible.

Rose squeezed her hand, "Don't worry too much. Uncle Harry will be pissed but I think he'll get over it. Even if he doesn't then you won't have everyone deserting you. Mum and I never would and Hugo doesn't care that much as long as it doesn't affect your Quidditch game."

Lily smiled at her cousin. She thought Rose would be unable to accept her feelings but it went to show that you shouldn't try to pre-empt other people's reactions. Rose had been supportive and continued to be so.

Alcyone came over and hugged Lily, "Rose is right. You have support. My mum will be thrilled. She's been nagging me to find out what's wrong with Scorpius recently and when I tell her that you two are finally together, she's going to over the moon."

Lily groaned at this, "Just what I need, the Malfoy family backing me. My dad's going to have kittens."

"Hey, we Malfoys look after our own. You date Scorpius then that makes you one of us."

Rose rolled her eyes and snorted. For all their differences, the Malfoy and Weasley family really were too similar. Family was everything and you closed ranks in the face of outside hostility. If both families could get past their past differences then they would probably be best friends. Maybe Scorpius and Rose's relationship could do some good in that direction.

Rose spluttered when Zabini piped up with, "If those Gryffindorks give you a hard time, then come to us. Slytherins won't tolerate Scorpius' girl being treated like dirt even if she is a Potter."

"Erm… thanks I think," Was all Lily said to Zabini's unexpected declaration of support.

Despite the fairly ridiculous nature of the messages of support, Lily appreciated them. Too many things were happening at one time. Having Scorpius as her official boyfriend was overwhelming enough but when you added confronting her family to that and she was drowning in it all.

"I guess there's no better time than now to write to mum and dad. Can someone fetch me parchment and a quill please," Lily said.

Albus and Scorpius just about made it around the corner before they kicked off.

"Who do you think you are? You're crazy if you think Lily is going to remain your girlfriend after today."

"I've had it up to here with your self-righteous bullshit, Potter. I've liked Lily for a while now but kept away from her because I didn't want to cause a problem for her family. But you know what, fuck it. I like her, she likes me and you'll just have to cope with it," Scorpius growled at Albus.

"Like hell I will. Lily will come to her senses once I tell dad what's going on."

"Some brother you turned out to be. You claim you love her and want to protect her but as soon as she does something you don't like you go running off to daddy to get her in trouble."

"This is more than something I don't like. This is consorting with Malfoys in the worst possible way. You Death Eaters shouldn't even be at Hogwarts," Albus spat.

Scorpius saw red and was only able to control himself from ripping Albus apart by sheer strength of will and the Lily-sounding voice that pleaded in his head not to lose his rag.

"You and your family are such fucking hypocrites. You supposedly won the war to stop prejudice but yet you spout it at every turn," Scorpius snarled.

"Oh please, a Malfoy trying to talk me about inclusion. Your family practically wrote the handbook on how to be vile bullies to anyone who isn't pureblood. So don't try and talk to me about prejudice," Albus hit back.

"If you opened your eyes for one millisecond, Potter, then you'd realise how ridiculous that last statement was. The first non-pureblood Malfoy is standing in front of you."

"Your Death Eater of a father blatantly just used Granger to reinstate the Malfoy name after the war."

Scorpius wasn't sure how he held himself back from decking Albus right there. The memory of Lily's eyes, so like Albus', pleading with him from her hospital bed drew him back from the brink. "Just speak of my parents like that again and I'll fucking kill you."

"I'm so scared," Albus drawled.

"You should be. My family might be rehabilitated but that doesn't mean we don't have volumes of dark arts books in our library. I know plenty of curses that you couldn't even imagine. Just try insinuating that my dad used my mum's reputation once more and I'll happily use one of them on you," Scorpius snarled menacingly.

"You're doing a really good job at proving how changed the Malfoy family are," Albus brazened out, trying not to show how much Scorpius had scared him.

"Like you'd even listen if I bothered wasting my breathe doing so. You and your brother were so welcoming to me when I started at Hogwarts. You didn't even give me a chance to prove who I am. The pair of you started hostilities on the train journey up here and gave your house carte blanche to continue them."

"Is the ikkle Malfoy feeling sorry for himself?" Albus mocked.

"Fuck you, Potter. I don't need your approval of my family or to date your sister. Go crying to your dad about it but it will change nothing," Scorpius sneered.

"It will do when dad gives her an ultimatum of either you or her family," Albus hissed.

"That worked out for him so well before. The great Harry Potter gave the girl who thought of him like a brother such an ultimatum and look where that left him. If want to lose your sister because you can't accept her feelings then go ahead, she'll have my family for support." And with that Scorpius marched away before he did what he'd be dying to do from the moment Albus has tugged Lily from his arms and punched his lights out.

Albus stormed up to the Gryffindor tower. He had letters to write to both his dad and his older brother. They'd soon have Lily thinking normally once more.

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><p><strong>AN: Reviews would make this author super happy … Please? <strong>


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: Please excuse the typos and grammatical mistakes that I am sure abound this chapter. I've literally just written it and want to post it to make my Monday posting deadline for you all!**

**Thank you for all your reviews for the last chapter. They made me really smile and it was nice to receive so many. This story hasn't received nearly as many reviews as my two others so I really appreciate my little band of lovely reviewers so much.**

**Disclaimer: The wonderful world of Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 10<strong>

Ginny and Harry were settling down for a lovely late Sunday breakfast. The best thing about having the kids off at school was the weekend lie-ins that they could now enjoy without one of kids barging into their rooms to complain about this or that. Ginny set the coffee pot on the table just as two owls pecked furiously on the window.

"Hmmm I wonder what that's about?" She mumbled out loud, to no-one in particular, before opening the window to let the owls in.

She handed one of the letters to Harry before sitting down with the other. She recognised her daughter's handwriting and opened the letter.

_Dear Mum and Dad,_

_I have something to tell you that you're not going to like but I want you to listen to me and try not to get too upset. Please, dad, this means you especially!_

_Ok, I'm just going to dive right in there and say it. I've fallen in love with Scorpius Malfoy. I know dad's having an aneurism right now but I can't deny my feelings any longer. He likes me too and we've decided to be together._

_I'm not going to try and justify this decision but I do want you to know that I've got to know him since that day in Knockturn Alley and he's everything you would want for me. He's sweet, funny, intelligent and he cares for me. He even tried to stay away from me because he didn't want to cause me any problems with my family. If this doesn't convince you that he truly cares about me then nothing will._

_Albus knows, well I didn't exactly tell him but he caught me with Scorpius. I know he is writing to you to as he has already tried to lay the law down to me but failed. I would love you to support me in this decision and, at least, get to know Scorpius. I know about your past with the Malfoy family but it really isn't fair to hold that against innocent children who weren't even alive at the time._

_I love you both and I hope that you aren't too angry with me._

_Love,_

_Lily_

Ginny rubbed her hands over her face when she'd finished. She'd seen the way that her daughter was going and, whilst she had hoped that her feelings wouldn't develop any further, she had to respect the fact that she'd come right out and owned up to them. Not trying to hide them or her new relationship with the son of her father's enemy. But how Harry was going to react was a whole other story. She'd bet her house on the other letter being from Albus.

Ginny looked over to Harry who was purple and looked as if he was struggling to breathe. His hand was tightly scrunched around the parchment.

"Harry, breathe, please," Ginny said.

"Can't …. Need to kill Malfoy," Harry choked out.

Ginny rolled her eyes, so much for Lily's pleading for them to be understanding. Harry was already in 'Mission Kill All Malfoys' mode which didn't bode well for his only daughter or, indeed, their relationship.

"Will you just read Lily's letter? She's written to us about this er new development. I'd also like to see what Albus has written."

Harry managed to straighten his fingers enough for Ginny to take Albus' letter out and slip Lily's into his hand.

_Dear Dad,_

_You have to do something. Lily has lost her mind. I caught her snogging Scorpius Malfoy and she's determined that they are dating. Rose says I have to deal with it but I can't._

_Malfoy being the slimy git that he is threatened to curse me with dark magic when I told him to stay away from Lily. He and his sister have brainwashed her. _

_You have to stop it now!_

_Albus_

Ginny sighed when she finished. That was Albus all over, melodramatic.

"Merlin's Beard!" Harry exclaimed. "Albus was right. The Malfoys really have brainwashed Lily."

Ginny frowned. "Is that all you got out of Lily's letter?"

"Well really, Ginny, how else could she have fallen in love with the Malfoy brat? Unless they slipped her a love potion."

"Harry, listen to yourself. You sound like a crazy person. Or like Ron at his most incoherent! You really think our daughter couldn't naturally fall in love with Scorpius Malfoy?"

"Of course she couldn't. She's a Potter and he's a Malfoy."

"And Hermione is a muggle-born and Draco is a pure-blood, yet they fell in love."

"Don't talk to me about that. I'm still so angry that Hermione chose that ferret over us, her friends who stood with her all through Malfoy's evil bullying."

"You need to get over this, Harry. Hermione didn't betray you by falling in love with Draco Malfoy and Lily isn't betraying you by doing the same with Scorpius," Ginny reasoned.

"But why Malfoy of all people?" Harry wailed.

There was a crack of apparition in the living room and Ginny got up to see who had come. Only family had permission to apparate directly into the Potter house.

"Teddy? What the hell. Why did you hold on to my robes?" The enraged tones of Ginny and Harry's oldest child, James sounded out around the house.

"You really thought I was going to let you just apparate after that rant. As far as I knew you were going to Hogswart to murder Scorpius Malfoy," Teddy Lupin responded.

"You can't apparate directly into Hogwarts, you know that, Teddy." James replied.

"Well, duh! But you can apparate to Hogsmeade and walk up to Hogwarts."

Ginny walked in to stop the bickering friends from adding to her stress today.

"James? What are you doing here?"

"Albus wrote to me. He told me about Lily and Scorpius Malfoy," he spat.

Ginny caught eyes with Teddy Lupin who looked frazzled at trying to control his volatile friend.

"Come through to the kitchen. You can join your father in having a mental breakdown. Hello, Teddy, darling, you look like you could do with a cup of coffee," Ginny said.

Teddy nodded gratefully, "I could. James burst into my room ranting on about my evil cousin debauching his sweet, innocent sister."

"I can't guarantee it'll be any quieter here but at least I have food already prepared."

"Thanks, Aunt Ginny. You're the best."

Ginny and Teddy followed James into the kitchen. James was already waving his letter in his dad's face and they were both ranting at each other at the same time. All Ginny had wanted was a quiet Sunday. Well, I guess I should be used to all the dramatics, growing up in my family, she thought to herself.

"Enough!" Ginny yelled, using sonorous to project her voice. "Really, this is too much. You are both completely over-reacting and if you confront Lily in such a manner then you will end up losing her completely."

This appeared to do the trick in calming Harry and James down. Teddy nodded his thanks at his Godfather's formidable wife.

"Now, we need to discuss this in a calm and rational manner. I know the pair of you object to this relationship but what exactly do you think you are going to be able to do about it?" Ginny continued.

"I need to speak to Lily," Harry said. "She needs to know that this is not acceptable. Anybody but a Malfoy. What is the girl thinking?"

"Look, I'm going to tell you something and I don't want you to get upset. Lily has been crushing on Scorpius Malfoy pretty much since she started Hogwarts. Obviously, she admired from afar until this summer, where his gallant behaviour seems to have encouraged her to get closer."

Harry and James both looked stunned. Teddy looked pretty disinterested. He loved his God-family to pieces but really, Lily's love life was not the most riveting thing, and he'd much rather be in bed sleeping.

"Mum, are you telling me that you knew she had a … a …._thing_ for Scorpius Malfoy and you said nothing," James said, shocked.

Ginny raised an eyebrow at her. "If you mean did I recognise the signs of a massive crush, then yes, of course, considering I also harboured such a crush on your father aged eleven. And why would I say anything? I didn't know it would get this far and, to be honest, I am not going to stand in my daughter's way if she would be happy with Scorpius."

Harry stared at his wife in disbelief, "But, love, it's Malfoy's son."

"Yes," Ginny replied. "But really what does that have to do with anything? Draco Malfoy has been a reformed member of society for a very long time now and I'm not going to hold his teenage mistakes against his son."

"Don't forget this innocent son has been in more fights with your own son, _me_, than any other kid at Hogwarts," James retorted.

Ginny gave James a level look. "First off, Jamie, don't get smart with me. I'm still your mother, no matter how old you are, and I will smack your bottom if you are rude."

James blushed and Teddy sniggered.

"Secondly, if you are trying to tell me that Scorpius instigated a single one of those fights, I'll eat my Firebolt, twig by twig, if that is true. I'm not stupid, I know you went looking for trouble with the Malfoy boy, and I have never approved of your father's encouragement of this behaviour."

Harry, at least, had the nerve to look slightly ashamed of himself in face of his wife's scolding. James sat there with nothing to say to his disapproving mother.

"Scorpius is a good lad. If I had a sister and she had to date anyone, then I'd rather him than a lot of other boys I know at Hogwarts," Teddy piped up.

Both James and Harry shot him glares showing him how much they thought he was betraying them.

"Have you forgotten how the Malfoys treated your Grandma Andromeda for all those years?" Harry reminded Teddy.

Teddy rolled his eyes, "Uncle Harry, you are crazy sometimes with this grudge of yours. If you bothered to listen to anything anyone ever said about the Malfoys, rather than just shouting about them when they are mentioned, then you would know that Grandma made up with Aunt Narcissa years ago."

Harry was shocked into silence.

"Really?" Ginny asked.

"Yes, Aunt Narcissa came to visit Grandma a few months after the war finished. She begged for forgiveness for how she'd treated her sister and she came to mourn the loss of a niece that she had never met. Then when Aunt Hermione married Uncle Draco, Grandma became a fixture in the house. We spend lots of time there," Teddy explained.

"How come you never said anything?" Harry asked.

"I love you lots, Uncle Harry, as does Grandma, but we knew you wouldn't understand this. And whilst you are like family to Grandma, Aunt Narcissa is her sister. They've become really close and have helped each other get over a lot of things that happened. Grandma was also instrumental in getting Hermione accepted by her sister," Teddy said.

An awkward silence filled the kitchen as everyone took what Teddy said on board. Ginny was pleased that the young man had spoken out. The whole incident this morning was making her feel guilty that she didn't stand up more to Harry over his behaviour towards Hermione when she married Draco.

The fireplace burnt green and out stumbled Ron closely followed by Luna.

"Harry, what the hell is Lily thinking. I got some garbled letter from Rose this morning about Lily dating Scorpius bloody Malfoy," Ron shouted.

Ginny rolled her eyes. Ron's timing was impeccable as usual.

"Sweetie, aren't you forgetting that Rose said she fully supported the couple and wouldn't have you ganging up against Lily with Harry," Luna pointed out.

"Yes, well, I'm hardly going to take advice on this from my seventeen-year-old daughter. She's clearly inherited the crazy genes from you," Ron said tactlessly.

Harry winced as Luna's usual dreamy look was replaced with a glacier glare. "Ronal Bilius Weasley, I'll have you know, that no-one in my family was been sectioned to the St. Mungo's mental health ward, unlike a certain uncle you were named after."

Ron flushed. "Luna, honey, you know I didn't mean it like that. You know me, I always speak before thinking," he said with a bashful smile.

Luckily for Ron, it was a well known fact that he often put his foot in it, no-one being more aware of this than his long suffering wife.

Luna patted his cheek. "I know, dear, it one of the things I love about you."

Ginny tried not to vomit her breakfast back up.

"When are we off to Hogwarts then?" Ron asked, in full battle mode.

Ginny cuffed him around the head. "Do you really think McGonagall is going to allow you in to Hogwarts to scream at your niece and potentially murder one of her students?"

Harry recognised that it was going to be impossible to speak to Lily about this face to face. "As much as I hate to admit it, Ginny's right. We can't interrupt the school year."

"Ok, so if we can't go to Hogwarts to bash mini-Malfoy's brains out then can we at least go to Malfoy Manor to beat daddy-Malfoy up?" Ron asked, hopefully.

Luna heaved a sigh at her dense spouse. "Firstly, they have wards to prevent something like happening and secondly, Hermione would hex you before you got a second punch to land on Draco."

"Can you and Ginny stop ruining all the fun," Ron complained. "If my ideas are so stupid then what do you suggest?" He pointedly asked his sister.

"Well, I'd be inclined to do nothing and let Lily date whomever she likes as long as he treats her with respect. But, I know Harry will do something stupid if I don't step in so I plan on going to see Hermione to gauge the Malfoy reaction to the news. Luna, fancy coming?"

"Oh, yes, I haven't seen Hermione for ages," Luna replied with a glare at her reddening husband.

"Are you just going to allow this?" Ron spluttered to Harry.

"She's your sister, you know how headstrong she gets," was Harry's only response.

"I'm glad you've come to some of your senses," Ginny said, giving Harry a kiss on the cheek. "Just give me a moment to find my shoes and bag, Luna, and we'll be off."

Meanwhile at Malfoy Manor, Hermione was just sitting down to breakfast with Draco and her in-laws, Narcissa and Lucius. She picked up the letter that had been left by her plate and recognised her daughter's handwriting.

_Dear Mama,_

_Further to my letter to you early last week, I have some good news. Scorpius finally got the girl! Well, really Lily went out and snagged your stubborn son but, hey, that's semantics!_

_Unfortunately, our lovely couple were then interrupted by that bumbling idiot she calls a brother who proceeded to make a massive fuss and twist Lily's knee in the process. If he's anything like his dad, then, mum, what were you thinking, befriending such a buffoon?_

_Anyway, I thought that I should let you know that Lily has written to inform her parents of Scorpius. I'm sure Albus has got a rant in by owl too. I thought I'd give you a heads up because you probably should expect a delegation of angry Potters at some point._

_Love you lots,_

_Alcyone._

Hermione smiled at the exuberance of her daughter's letter. She was the complete opposite to her stoic father and unreadable Malfoy grandparents. Alcyone had run through the Manor like a breath of fresh air ever since she was born. She hated anything too stuffy and was always leaving books on random tables, throwing cushions around and generally disturbing the formal nature of the Manor. Hermione loved her all the more for it.

"Draco darling, did we receive a letter from Scorpius today by any chance?"

"No, love, any reason why we should have done?" Draco asked

Hermione frowned, "That son of yours is getting more and more like you everyday," she grumbled.

Draco just raised a brow and smirked. He was used to Hermione's rants about his less than forthcoming nature.

"I just thought he might want to warn us that several traumatised Potters could show up today," Hermione said.

"What? Why?" Draco asked.

"Alcyone has written to tell me that Scorpius has started dated Lily Potter and that they were caught by her older brother, Albus," Hermione said, before biting into her toast.

Draco groaned. "I knew that was going to happen. The sparks between the two of them in Knockturn Alley was nauseating."

"Scorpius is dating a _Potter_," sneered Lucius.

"It seems that way, although not at all a shock. Alcyone wrote to tell me to expect it last week," Hermione informed her father-in-law, ignoring the revolted facial expression.

"He must get the bad taste from you. A Malfoy would never like a Potter. It must be a Granger thing," Lucius said, still trying to get his around it.

Hermione laughed, "Oh, Lucius, you do realise that you just insulted your own precious Malfoy line as I chose to marry your only son."

Lucius realised this and looked put out before Narcissa rapped his knuckles with her spoon. "Behave, Lucius. I'm sure Scorpius' young lady is adorable, Potter or not."

Draco and Hermione swapped glances at this. Narcissa thought the sun shone out of Scorpius. He could never make a bad decision but at least it would make it easy for Lily, as Narcissa would be incredibly welcoming to her, for her grandson's sake.

Hermione was rearranging the Potions section of the Malfoy library when she heard the doorbell chime. The wards for Malfoy Manor were as strong as ever. No-one could apparate or floo in without receiving specific permission. The doorbell meant one thing, it must be the Potters. Door-to-door broomstick selling had died out in the last century.

"Mistress, Mrs Ginerva Potter and Mrs Luna Weasley are here to see yous," squeaked Hermione's free elf, Lolly.

"Thank you, Lolly, could you please show them into the visiting parlour," Hermione asked with a smile.

She had struggled to get used to the elves at Malfoy Manor but had reconciled with it by freeing them and paying them a small wage with a measly about of holiday. Hermione had tried to get them to accept more but they had bartered her down quite ruthlessly.

Hermione tried not to be too surprised at her visitors but her heart was pounding in her chest and her palms felt a little a sweaty. It would be strange to talk to her previous best girlfriend, Ginny, after all this time. Luna and Hermione still communicated by owl and tried to meet up for a coffee every now and again, in secret, of course, from Ron who'd nag at Luna until she didn't see Hermione anymore.

Draco popped his head out of his study, "Is that the Potters?" he asked.

"No, just Ginny and Luna," Hermione replied.

"Do you want me to come with you? You must be nervous about seeing Ginny again."

Hermione smiled at her handsome husband. He really was adorably supportive when it came to her. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

Draco nodded, "Just shout if you need any help, ok?"

Hermione got halfway through the door to the parlour when she was jumped on by a red blur.

"Oh, Hermione, it's so good to see you. I've missed you so much," Ginny said sobbing.

Like that, Hermione's anxiety disappeared. It was as if the last few decades hadn't happened. Ginny still smelt of the apple shampoo that she'd used all the way through Hogwarts. It was nostalgic.

"Ginny, you might want to stop suffocating Hermione," Luna said, bringing the crying red-head back to her senses.

"Sorry, Hermione, I guess I just got carried away," Ginny said, untangling her arms from around Hermione's neck and wiping her tears away.

Hermione smiled at her friend, "I missed you too, Gin. It's been so long since we chatted."

Ginny's smile grew sad. "I know. I'm so sorry I let Harry dictate to me. I was surprised when Luna said that she still saw you and it made me ashamed that I let Harry tell me what to do when it comes to you."

"I get it. You forget I spent the best part of a decade with those two knuckleheads and they can nag at you until they are blue in the face and you want to commit suicide just to escape it. And, of course, I forgive you. I love you too much not to. It doesn't mean that it didn't hurt though," Hermione responded.

If anything, Ginny now felt even guiltier. Hermione deserved to have had better friends that she got. Her friends should have trusted her decision and not tried to make her choose between them and the man she loved. This was one thing Ginny was determined not to allow happen to her daughter.

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><p><strong>AN: I know this chapter had no Lily or Scorpius but I thought it was important to get the old generations reactions. I also wanted to bring some initial contact between the Potters and Malfoys. I also hope you don't think Hermione forgave Ginny too easily but I kind of feel that Hermione would. I know I haven't gone into much conversation between them but I felt Ginny's reflections on Hermione and Lily's situation was a good place to end the chapter!<strong>

**If you see any missing words/letters, grammatical or spelling errors please do let me know so I can go back and correct them. **

**And please do review!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: Sorry this chapter is a few days late. Those of you who follow my other story, Becoming Mrs Malfoy, know that I usually post new chapters for that one on Thursday but my computer's been out of action since Monday afternoon and I just got it fixed. So yay! to posting once again.**

**This chapter is dedicated to my awesome reviewer, _Midnight Shadow of Darkness_ who reviewed every chapter as she went along before catching up at the last chapter. A massive thanks to everyone else for reviewing. I love reading what you have to say.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 11<strong>

Hermione finally got her emotional red-headed friend to sit down. Ginny was over-wrought and thought that Hermione should be shouting at her at least. Hermione smiled and shook her head. She'd missed her Weasley friends and their open ways

"I see you haven't lost your crazy ways, Ginny! Stop trying to get me to yell and you and just sit down," Hermione said, exasperated.

"Ok, I guess I'm just too used to living with Ron. My ears would be bleeding right now if he was in your position."

Hermione smiled as she thought of Ginny's impetuous brother. "Luna, how do you cope with all the shouting?" Hermione asked.

"Oh I found this ingenuous muggle invention called ear plugs. They are much more discrete than a muffling spell. I've had them for years and he hasn't noticed yet that I've put them in when he starts," Luna answered.

Both Hermione and Ginny cracked up laughing. "Oh please, you have to give me some. I can't believe you've kept them all yourself and not told the rest of us."

Luna gave a very un-ditzy smile. "I have a reputation to keep up. You wouldn't all think of me as so serene if you realised that I had to resort to such measures," she winked.

Ginny conceded this point. "You're right. But I'll keep your secret if you share your stock of ear plugs with me."

"Deal," Luna said, shaking Ginny's hand.

"Oh, I can't wait for the next Weasley get together now. I'm going to feel so smug sitting there with my ear plugs whilst everyone else winces at Ron's volume," Ginny squealed excitedly.

"You can test them out by telling Ron that you came to Malfoy Manor to see me," Hermione suggested.

"Ugh, don't remind me. I can't believe that I let them behave like that to you, Hermione. I really am sorry," Ginny said, hugging Hermione fiercely once more.

"Enough! No more tears, Ginny. We've wasted enough time over the years without spending all our time today rehashing events. Besides, don't we have to discuss how to support Lily and Scorpius?"

"You're right, Hermione, as always. I'm just going to say that you are the nicest, most forgiving friend ever," Ginny said exuberantly, squishing Hermione into another hug.

The three reunited friends settled down to decide on how to help the young lovers and to generally catch up. Draco popped his head around to remind them about lunch. He saw them sitting there, heads close together, nattering and organised a platter of sandwiches and fruit to be sent to them in the parlour.

"Where's Hermione?" Lucius asked as he, Draco and Narcissa sat down for lunch in the dining room.

"She's still talking to her friends. I sent Lolly up with some food for them."

"I can't believe we have a Weasley and a Lovegood sitting in our parlour," Lucius grumbled.

Draco rolled his eyes, "It's something that you're going to have to get used to by the looks of it. Just wait until Scorpius has Lily Potter over, which I'm sure will happen over the holidays."

"I never thought I'd see the day when we Malfoys would play host to such families," Lucius sneered.

Narcissa pursed her lips at her husband, "Because I'm sure you predicted that your son would marry a muggle-born. Now, stop complaining and eat. You got used to Hermione easily enough, so I'm sure you can deal with her friends just as well."

"I don't know how Hermione can forgive them so easily. She should at least make that annoying red-headed girl suffer a little for her desertion," Lucius continued.

Draco laughed, "Good job Hermione's forgiving or I might never have had a chance with her and would be stuck here with one of the insipid purebloods you were so desperately trying to set me up with."

Draco saw that Lucius was about to say something else. "And before you start moaning again about how ungrateful I am, just remember that you don't fool me for a moment. You adore Hermione more than you could have done with any of those girls you paraded around in the hope that I would ditch her."

Lucius was going to defend himself but realised that he didn't have a leg to stand on. Draco was right and they all knew it. Lucius worshipped Hermione, something he never imagined in a million years.

"Exactly," Draco said. "And I'm sure you'll love Lily too, Potter or not."

Lily sat the Gryffindor table ignoring the glares being thrown her way by Albus. He had gleefully informed her that he had written to their parents and their eldest brother James about the 'situation with Malfoy' as he called it. Lily hadn't risen to Albus' bait, knowing that her brother was looking for her to be scared so she would call it off with Scorpius. Lily wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. Lily knew Albus was stewing in frustration. It had been three days and neither of them had heard from their dad. However, Lily had received a letter from her mum. It had been given to her via Alcyone, which had confused Lily a lot.

"Why do you have a letter from my mum?" Lily asked bewildered.

"Your mum wrote it at Malfoy Manor and mum offered to send it with her letter to me," Alcyone replied.

"My mum was at your house?" Lily asked once more feeling even more puzzled.

"Yep, it seems your relationship with Scorpius has reunited our mums. Mine is really happy to be talking to yours again. I think my friendship with you had made her sad and miss your mum a lot."

Lily barely took that in, she was still struggling at the fact that her mum had gone to Malfoy Manor.

"Anyway, instead of looking at it like it's going to bite you, why don't you open it and see what your mum has to say," Alcyone teased.

_Dear Lily,_

_We got your letter. I'm not going to lie and say that your dad is at all understanding of your feelings just yet but don't worry, all is not lost. James also got a letter from Albus and came storming in a huff. Luckily, he had Teddy with him who informed us all that he and Aunt Andromeda have been reunited with the Malfoys for years. This is a good thing as it is causing your father to think about a lot of things. Andromeda had a lot more to forgive but forgiven her sister she has._

_I know you will be confused as to why I sent this with Hermione's letter to Alcyone but I didn't want you to open this at the Gryffindor table in front of Albus. I'm working on smoothing the situation out for you and Albus being aware of this will not help at the moment._

_I wanted to let you know that I'm very proud of you. You looked beyond silly rivalries and you deserve to be happy for doing so. Your actions have made me slightly ashamed of how I abandoned Hermione because I wanted a quiet life. I should have challenged your dad and Uncle Ron over their attitude to Hermione's marriage to Draco. Hermione, being the forgiving soul that she is, doesn't hold this against me and I can't tell you how lovely it was to sit with her and Aunt Luna and catch up on everything._

_Now Hermione, Luna and I are working on a plan to bring everything to a head and hopefully end this stupid feud. So please, stay strong, don't let Albus bully you and, if all goes well, then you and Scorpius will be fine._

_Lots of love,_

_Mum._

Lily was crying by the time she got to the end of the letter which worried Alcyone.

"Hey, I didn't think it would be a bad letter, considering that she wrote and sent it from Malfoy Manor. Is she really angry with you?" Alcyone asked.

"No, the opposite, these are tears of relief. Mum said she's proud of me and that she's going to help Scorpius and I. I have geared myself up for such a big battle that her support comes as such a welcome surprise."

Strong arms came around her waist. "What are you doing to my girl, Alcyone? No girlfriend of mine should be crying," Scorpius said from behind them.

"Oh hush," Lily said turning around in his arms and leaning up to give him a kiss. "Alcyone just gave me a letter from my mum. Here read it."

Scorpius was a little apprehensive before opening the parchment. He didn't think he could take an attack on his Lily, especially from her family, with him being the cause.

"Don't worry, it's not bad," Lily said recognising the conflict on Scorpius' face.

Scorpius smiled as he finished the letter. He was pleased that Lily would at least have the support of one of her parents. Maybe there was hope for them after all.

"That's nicer than the letter I received from mum. She scolded me for keeping secrets about you and that she had to hear everything from Alcyone, the little traitor spy here," Scorpius said, playfully hitting his sister.

"Watch it, you oaf! I bruise easily," Alcyone grumbled.

Rose came flying around the corner. "Lily, there you are. I wanted to catch you. I know you haven't heard from your parents but I got a letter from mum and wanted to share its contents with you."

Lily waved her letter under Rose's nose. "Don't worry, mum sent me a letter. She just didn't want Albus to see it so she sent it with Mrs Malfoy's letter to Alcyone."

"Oh," Rose said, deflating a little. "Well that's good. Do you know what they're planning?"

"No," Alcyone said. "But with mum, Mrs Potter and Mrs Weasley, I'm sure Lily and Scorpius will be fine. I don't think anyone would stand a chance against those three from all the stories mum has told me over the years."

"I still have nightmares about Mrs Potter hexing me," Scorpius shuddered. "Dad used to tell us when we were little that if we didn't behave he'd send us away to the Potters house where all sorts of evil experiments would be carried out on us."

Rose and Lily creased up with laughter at this. Scorpius and Alcyone were unable to join in; the memories of the threats were still all too real.

"I still don't get how dad managed to get us to keep that quiet from mum," Alcyone said.

"I do," Scorpius replied. "He said Ginny Potter would hit us with a bat-bogey hex and then force us to wear some hideous knitted monstrosity of a jumper."

"Hey!" Lily and Rose objected. "The Weasley jumpers aren't hideous! They're a family institution and lovely and warm too."

"I'll take your word for it. Malfoys only wear cashmere," Scorpius said snootily.

Lily sighed at her snobby boyfriend. "Don't worry, I'll get grandma to knit you one for Christmas."

Albus sat moodily, staring into the fire, in the Gryffindor common room. Hugo wandered up and offered him one of his Bertie Botts' All Flavour Beans. Albus took a handful absent-mindedly.

"What's wrong with you?" Hugo asked.

"I still haven't heard back from dad. I was sure he would have done something to stop Lily dating that slimy Malfoy by now."

"Are you still on about this?"

Albus shot his cousin a glare. "Do you expect me to be able to think of something else? I still have nightmares about catching them snogging. It was disgusting! It's strange because I really would have thought that at least James would have shown up or something by now."

"Maybe your parents are going to be fine with it," Hugo suggested.

"Don't make me feel sick, please, Hugo. Besides, if that was the case then they would have made up with Mrs Malfoy by now."

"Maybe they feel stupid and don't know how to heal the rift."

"Yeah and the Hufflepuffs are going to win the Quidditch Cup this year," Albus replied sarcastically.

"You know, I never got why you and James hated Scorpius Malfoy so much. I mean, dad hates Draco Malfoy just as much as Uncle Harry but that doesn't mean that I feel the need to hate Scorpius," Hugo commented.

"What? You don't hate Malfoy?" Albus asked.

"Nope, don't get me wrong, I wish the git would fall of his broom and let us catch the snitch for once but otherwise I couldn't care what he gets up to," Hugo answered.

"What? As long as he lets Gryffindor win a game you'd be happy that he's dating your cousin?"

"Yep, can't say I care either way. At least Scorpius doesn't have too much of a reputation. I mean not like that creep Algernon Blake. I hear you wanted Lily patrolling with him rather than Alcyone Malfoy. Didn't you know there's a reason why no-one ever partners him with a girl?"

Albus looked taken aback. He couldn't honesty say he'd ever paid that much attention to the patrol rota and Hugo wasn't even a prefect so how did he know. Albus said as much to his cousin.

Hugo rolled his eyes. "He's got wandering, grope-y hands. I dated that Ravenclaw prefect last year and she told me all about him. At least you know with Scorpius that Lily won't be subject to anything like that."

Albus was a little taken aback. He'd never thought too much about Malfoy's reputation with girls. He hated how so many Hogwarts girls seemed to throw themselves at the handsome Slytherin but he hadn't really paid attention to how he treated his girlfriends.

"But he's a womaniser," Albus objected.

Hugo scoffed. "Really, Albus, with all the attention you pay to Malfoy you think you'd actually notice a bit more. Scorpius has dated only a couple of girls. You're mistaking him for Marco Zabini, and we all know that he only plays the field to hide the fact that he's completed crushed out on Alcyone Malfoy, but is too scared to face her brother to date her."

"How do you know so much about all of this?" Albus asked.

"Because I have two eyes and besides, I don't hate all Slytherins like you do. I get on really well with Charlie Harper, the Slytherin Keeper."

Before Albus could accuse Hugo of being a traitor, Rose burst through the portrait hole into the common room.

"There you are, Albus, Hugo. We've been summoned by Professor McGonagall. She wants to see us immediately in her office."

Albus and Hugo jumped up and followed Rose to McGonagall's office. When the moving staircase stopped, they knocked on the office door and stopped in shock when it opened. There sat around a conjured round table were the Potter, Weasley and Malfoy families. It appeared as if McGonagall had decided on intervention to end the feud.

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><p><strong>AN2: I'm pretty sure there is only one more chapter to go. I'm half way through writing it. I doubt that I'll add an epilogue – you may all just have to persuade me if you want one after reading the next chapter I post.<strong>

**Please review and let me know what you thought of this chapter and what you think/hope/want to happen next! (Unless you hate this fiction and want them all to die in a freak explosion. I'd rather not know that ;)).**


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: Well, you all clamoured for an epilogue and I may just have an idea so I won't put this story as completed yet …. But here's the final chapter of the story proper.**

**Thank you for all your story alerts, favourites and especially your reviews. I love reading your reactions. **

**This chapter is dedicated to Marrunks who reviewed every chapter whilst reading up to this one.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 12<strong>

Minerva McGonagall surveyed the people around her table. She had surprised when she had received a letter from Hermione Malfoy, Ginny Potter and Luna Weasley outlining their problem and asking for her help in solving it. She had noticed that Lily Potter had struck up a friendship with Alcyone Malfoy and she had been pleased. She didn't agree with the petty feuds that had abounded in the wizarding world since the end of the second war. Too many people had died for such thinking to end for such behaviour to be justified. She had also been upset to see the way in which her former house, led by James and Albus Potter had treated Scorpius Malfoy when he had started Hogwarts. She had done her utmost to stop it but you couldn't tackle that behaviour without the help of parents and, whist Harry and Ron had every reason to detest the Malfoys, she didn't approve of them passing it onto their children or indeed shunning Hermione.

So she had been pleasantly surprised that instead of rounding on Lily and Scorpius, the three former female friends had put their considerable brains together and come up with way to find a lasting solution.

Minerva's train of thought was broken when Hermione laughed. "Wow, this feels like Romeo and Juliet come to life," she said.

"I guess you could say that the Malfoy and Weasley families have had a feud going on for nearly as long as the Montagues and Capulets," Draco responded.

This caused raised eyebrows from Harry. He didn't think that Draco Malfoy would know the muggle playwright, William Shakespeare.

"What Potter? Do you really think I could live with Hermione for a prolonged period of time without having soaked up some muggle culture? Besides, she's added a muggle section to the Malfoy library," Draco said, looking at Harry's expression in contempt.

Before a full-scale row could break out, ruining all the work of getting everyone in this room, Minerva cleared her throat. "Now, I guess you all know why you are here," she said with a nod to Lily and Scorpius, who were sitting together holding hands.

"Hermione, Ginny and Luna wrote to me asking if they could use this space to call a family conference and also if my students involved could attend. I was more than happy to oblige because I have been incredibly disappointed to see how my former students have progressed since the end of the war," she said sternly, looking in particular at Harry and Ron.

"Don't think I haven't noticed how strong bonds of friendship have been discarded or how rivalries have been passed onto the next generation. I had hoped this kind of thinking would have ended with the outcome of the second wizard war."

Harry and Ron couldn't help but reddened under the disapproving gaze of their former professor.

"I'm hoping, along with Hermione, Ginny and Luna that today can bring at end to this ridiculous feud. It's been refreshing to see Lily and Alcyone's friendship progress and I see that Lily and Scorpius have developed feelings for each other. But this is enough from me, I have leant this space to you today so that you can all do the talking. I don't plan on being here because I'm sure personal things will be brought up that I don't need to be privy to. However, if things do get out of hand, Albus, Dumbledore that is, will come and find me."

Everyone looked at the portrait of the former great wizard and saw him twinkling down at them. Draco caught eyes with Severus Snape, who looked at his former pupil with pride. Draco purposely ignored his ancestor Nigellus Black, who was as sour as always and looking at Hermione and the half-blood Malfoys with little respect.

"Now, I think I'm to hand over to the girls … err women who organised this meeting," Minerva said, leaving the three families alone.

Ginny stood up, motioning for Hermione to join her. She put her arm around the brunette's shoulders. "When I received Lily's letter informing me of her relationship with Scorpius, I felt ashamed. Not of my daughter, of whom I am incredibly proud, but of myself and how I treated a girl who had been like a sister to me throughout my years at Hogwarts. When she came to us all those years ago, informing us that she had fallen in love with Draco Malfoy, none of us gave her a chance to explain. We exploded with anger that she had been 'fraternizing with the enemy' and accused her of betraying us. We didn't take into consideration that you cannot help who you fall in love with or that Hermione, the one of us with the most logic and common sense, would not have fallen in love with the boy who tormented us in Hogwarts. The fact that she had fallen in love with Draco Malfoy meant that he had changed," Ginny said tearfully.

"Hermione hoped that our anger would cool and fade and that we would give her Draco a chance to prove himself. But we were stubborn and pig-headed and, instead, we cut her out of our lives. We thought she was wrong and that she had betrayed everything that we had fought for. But we were the ones in the wrong. Hermione had, in fact, honoured everything that the second war stood for, which is forgiveness, redemption and an end to the hatred that had fostered and been encouraged under Lord Voldemort. A few years after Hermione married Draco, I wanted to contact her. I missed my friend and I wanted to see how she was but when Harry saw who I was corresponding with, he was angry and I allowed him to end all communication. I regret this greatly. There was an opportunity for me to put my foot down and to force an end to the bitterness. I let Hermione down for a second time," Ginny continued.

"Well, I won't do this to my daughter. She has fallen in love with Scorpius Malfoy and I won't punish her for it. I went to Malfoy Manor to speak with Hermione, to apologise and to find a way so that our children can be together without having to go through what she did," Ginny finished.

Hermione embraced her, openly crying. "I was pleasantly surprised to see Ginny with Luna. I never wanted my love for Draco to mean that I would have to choose between the man I loved and my friends. I feel resentful for the fact that I was given such an ultimatum from my friends. I fully expected to have to wade out in full armour to support Lily's decision to be with my son, Scorpius. I'm pleased that, if I do have to do this, I have Ginny and Luna by my side. But Harry, do you really want to put your daughter through that?" Hermione asked.

Harry looked at Hermione. He was completely torn. Being in such close quarters with his former best friend meant was playing with his emotions. Part of him wanted to envelope her in a hug and the other part of him was still hurt by her choice of Malfoy over him.

Hermione could read this in him and was heartened. She knew it wasn't in Harry's nature to be so harsh, especially towards his children.

"Do you really want to potentially lose your daughter over this, Harry? Ultimatums aren't nice and make those given them question the love of the giver. Is your love for your daughter really dependent on who she dates? I ask you to get to know Scorpius for who he is and not his name."

Lily looked at her dad beseechingly. "Mrs Malfoy is right, daddy. You're judging Scorpius purely on his surname when you have always taught us that to judge people because of blood is wrong. You fought a whole war against that type of thinking."

Harry looked towards Ron and his two boys. Under the persuasive arguments of the women of their family, they were beginning to waver. The logic of what Hermione and Lily were saying wasn't lost on any of them.

Harry cleared his throat. "I guess I could give Scorpius a chance to prove that he is different and that he deserves you."

Lily squealed, leapt across the table and half strangled her dad in a massive hug. Ginny smiled at the scene and gave the two a moment.

"Thank you, daddy," Lily whispered in Harry's ear. "You won't regret this I promise."

"I'm trusting you, Pumpkin. But if he puts one foot out of line then you won't be allowed to see him."

"He's not like you think. Besides, he's the first half-blood Malfoy and a child of Hermione Granger. Do you think he would treat me badly?" Lily said.

Harry conceded the point, "You're probably right. You have too much of your mother in you to not be."

Lily gave her dad the intimidating Weasley matriarch stare. "Now, don't you think you and Uncle Ron need to go over to Hermione and beg her to forgive you for your stupid behaviour?"

Harry looked startled, "Now, Lily, sweetheart, I'm not sure that's necessarily a good idea."

Lily knelt up on the table and put her hands on her hips, "Dad! You cannot give Scorpius a chance but continue this ridiculous vendetta you have against his mother. Can't you see that she misses you? You did a horrible thing in making her choose and then cutting her out of your life because she wouldn't give Mr Malfoy up. Both of them have proved you wrong. Their marriage is strong, they love one another and have raised four children who have zero blood prejudice. Isn't it time you admitted that you were wrong about Mr Malfoy and that Mrs Malfoy was right?"

Put like that, Harry didn't have anything to say in his defence. How had his little girl grown up so quickly and to be so smart? She made him feel small for his actions. No parent should have to be told what was the right thing to do by his child. Harry sighed, nodded at his vehement daughter and went over to Hermione.

Draco stiffened as Harry approached.

"Be nice," Hermione whispered. "For Scorpius' sake."

Draco rolled his eyes and looked down at his wife, tugging one of her curls. "Has anyone ever told you that you meddle too much?"

"You, frequently, but this is for our son," Hermione responded.

As much as Draco wanted to punch Potter's lights out, he knew that his wife did miss her friends. They had a history together that Draco couldn't erase no matter how much he wanted to at times. He backed away a little, knowing that it would be better for them to have conversation with out him.

"So, your son and my daughter, huh," Harry said, feeling intensely uncomfortable.

Hermione smiled at former best friend. "You have nothing to worry about. He'll treat her like a princess. _He_ doesn't have the emotional range of a teaspoon."

Harry laughed at Hermione's reminder of their jokes during their school days. He soon turned sober as he faced Hermione. "I'm sorry. I've been sorry for a while but I haven't wanted to admit it to myself. I'm stubborn and I didn't want to admit I was wrong so I covered it all up with more stubbornness."

Hermione looked at Harry knowingly. "You think I can't read you, Harry. I know you and Ronald like the back of my hand. Why do you think I subtly encouraged my daughter to push your daughter towards my son? I knew that when it came down to it, you could never stand in the way of your daughter's happiness."

Harry engulfed Hermione in a massive bear hug. "It's a good job that you're so forgiving and compassionate," he whispered in her ear.

"I know, Draco is forever moaning about it. Apparently it's not fitting for a Malfoy."

Harry cracked a smile at this.

Ron ambled over, rubbing his stomach. "Merlin's beard, I'm hungry. Do either of you fancy a trip to the kitchens. I bet the House Elves still try and palm loads of food off on you."

Hermione cuffed him around the head. "I see some things never change."

Draco surveyed the reunification of the Golden Trio as he stood next to his son. "Your grandfather is never going to forgive me," he said to his son.

Scorpius dragged his attention away from Lily, who was nattering away to her Aunt Luna and Rose on his other side.

"He will when he sees how happy it makes mum. For someone who was so immersed in Death Eater circles, he does have a massive soft spot for muggle-born mum," Scorpius replied.

Draco smiled. "I defy anyone to not love you mother when they get to know her properly. She could have charmed Voldemort himself. Just like your little witch."

Scorpius smirked. "It's hard to know where Lily gets her charm from when you meet her brothers."

"Ha! Or her father, the Boy-Devoid-Of-Charm-And-Wit, but you may just want to ask your godfather, Blaise all about how charming Ginny Potter can be," Draco drawled.

Scorpius looked quizzically at his father.

"Oh, yes. Blaise harboured a crush on that red-head throughout our time at Hogwarts. He lived in hope after I got together with Hermione that Ginny would see the Slytherin coloured light and ditch Potter and fall into his willing arms," Draco informed his son.

"It's comforting to see that delusions run in the Zabini family."

Draco's eyebrow rose in query.

"Marco's been sniffing around Alcyone. He thinks I'm oblivious to it," Scorpius said.

Draco pursed his lips and regarded his eldest daughter. "Hmmm don't say anything to your mother, she'll forbid me from taking action. I need to think about this."

Scorpius nodded his agreement. He then put his arm around Lily, steering her towards the door. His father smiled indulgently at him.

When they reached the quiet of the corridor, Scorpius pulled Lily in for a kiss.

"Well, that went better than expected," he said to his girlfriend.

"Doesn't your stubbornness about us seem silly now?" she asked him.

"I know how you want this to go, sweetheart so I'll just come out and say it so we can stop wasting time on this and spend more time kissing. You were right, I was wrong and I bow to your infinite wisdom. Now, can we stop talking and start kissing?" Scorpius teased.

Lily smiled up at him. "Hmmmm, maybe after I've heard more about you worshiping me."

"Cheeky girl," Scorpius said, pulling her in close.

A throat clearing behind him, made Scorpius whirl around. He rolled his eyes as he saw Albus standing there.

"If you've come to threaten me about touching your sister, I'm only going to say this once. Your father has given us his blessing and you have no right to dictate who she does or doesn't see," Scorpius said.

Albus clenched his jaw and looked down at his hands. "I've … erm … come to apologise. I shouldn't have reacted the way I did and I should have trusted Lily's judgement about you."

Lily stared at her brother. "Who are you and what have you done with Albus?"

Albus scowled at her. "Mum gave me a right tongue-lashing."

"Good," Lily replied. "You deserve one. You've been a proper git about this whole thing and that's without going into how horrible you've been to Scorpius since you both started Hogwarts. I want you to apologise to him."

"What?" Albus said, startled.

Lily put her hands on her hip. "You heard me, apologise to Scorpius."

Albus looked from his sister to Scorpius, standing slightly behind her, smirking at him. "Errr, do you think that's really necessary?"

"Yes," Lily said fiercely. "It would mean a lot to me and prove how much you regret your behaviour."

Albus shuffled his feet, patently not wanting to apologise. He looked at the floor. "Malfoy, I'm er sorry for er being horrible to you." He glanced up at Lily who grinned at him.

"See, that wasn't too hard was it?" She said.

Albus didn't say anything, not wanting to give Scorpius the satisfaction of seeing Lily yelling at him. He disappeared as fast as he could back to the Gryffindor common room.

"Your brother still hates me," Scorpius commented.

"Yes but then again, he'd hate anyone who dated me. Pretty much like you and Alcyone."

"Hey, I don't mind Alcyone dating."

Lily looked at his sceptically. "So that's why you're so encouraging about the idea of her and Marco Zabini."

Scorpius frowned. "Marco's a different story. He's not good enough for Alcyone."

Lily smiled gently at her boyfriend. "You and Albus have a lot more in common than either of you think. Now come here and give me a kiss."

Scorpius obliged, not wanting to get into how he and Potter could have anything in common beyond her.

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><p><strong>AN: I hope the ending was ok. I didn't want it a reunification between Hermione, Harry and Ron to seem rushed but then again this is a ScorpiusLily fiction so it didn't seem right to have chapters dedicated to that. **

**And I left Albus still hating Scorpius **


	13. Epilogue

**Author's Note: Here we are, the end of the story. Thank you to everyone for reading, alerting, favouriting and reviewing. **

**The epilogue is dedicated to Echizenochi who has reviewed every single chapter of all my stories from the very beginning and has provided lots of encouragement for me to continue this particular story when I've struggled to keep it going. So thank her for the fact that it got completed.**

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><p><strong>Epilogue<strong>

"I don't see why we have to have an invasion of poverty stricken red-heads and that blasted Potter boy over Christmas," Lucius moaned for the nth time.

"Don't look at me," Draco said. "I'm not exactly enamoured of Weasleys or Potters either. Speak to your daughter-in-law."

Hermione looked with exasperation at the eldest Malfoy male. "Lucius, I wanted to invite Lily over and it goes without saying that in such a family orientated family, in order for her to come, I would need to invite the rest."

"Well, I'm not happy about it. Malfoy Manor has never been so desecrated."

Hermione raised her eyebrows in amusement. "Really, Lucius, what poppy-cock! I distinctly remember Malfoy Manor playing host Voldemort and his inner circle of Death Eaters. I'm sure the Weasleys cannot pollute it more than he did."

Lucius flushed slightly at the memory. He always felt ashamed of his previous activities when his daughter-in-law bought them up so casually.

"Besides, Grandpa, you haven't met Lily yet," Alcyone piped up. "You're going to love her and she's so beautiful with all that black hair and those green eyes."

"Oh joy," Lucius said grumpily, "a female mini-Potter. Does she wear glasses and having a lightening scar as well?"

Draco sniggered in the background. Despite his father being grateful for the outcome of the war, he still hated Harry Potter.

Lucius grumbled and made a quick exit out of the family living room under the death stares of his daughter-in-law and eldest grand-daughter.

"Your father is going to behave isn't he, Draco?" Hermione asked her husband

"Don't worry, Hermione darling," Narcissa said, "The Malfoy manners will mean that he will welcome them graciously."

"Just don't plan on it lasting for longer than his first glass of Firewhiskey," Draco commented.

Harry squirmed as Ginny fixed his tie. "It's too tight," he whined. "I can't breathe."

"Well, you certainly aren't turning up at Malfoy Manor with your tie all askew. I don't care how uncomfortable it is, you will look smart," Ginny said ruthlessly.

Harry chuntered under his breath. His wife, Hermione and Luna had organised this get together on Christmas Eve. He didn't want to be anywhere near Lucius or Draco Malfoy but Lily and Scorpius wanted to spend time together during the holidays so the matriarchs had organised for the Weasleys and Potters to go to Malfoy Manor. It was the only house between all of them big enough for such a gathering.

"Ok, Harry, you go first," Ginny said shoving the pot of floo powder into his hands.

"Why me?" He whinged.

"Stop being such a big baby and get in that fireplace now," Ginny said, putting her hands on her hips.

She allowed herself a smile as Harry looked petrified as the green flames whisked him away. "Lily, dear, you go next."

Albus and James sulked at the back of the room, neither of them were happy about their little sister dating or having to go and socialise with Scorpius Malfoy during the holidays. Ginny waited until Lily had disappeared before rounding on her sons.

"Right, you two, I will brook no misbehaviour from the pair of you. You will be polite at all times. You will thank the Malfoys for inviting you over and you will be charming and gracious at all times. Do you understand me?" She said sternly.

Albus and James eyed their mother in alarm. Her no nonsense voice was not to be messed with.

"Yes, mum," Albus said quietly.

Ginny smiled at the pair of them. "Good. Now Albus, you go next."

Lily couldn't help but smile at the sight that met her when she got out of the fireplace at Malfoy Manor. Her father was standing awkwardly next to Hermione, trying his hardest not to cling to her as Lucius and Draco Malfoy eyed him askew. Scorpius came forward and engulfed Lily in a massive hug.

"How long do you think the stand-off will last?" Lily whispered in his ear.

"With my grandpa, probably the whole day," Scorpius replied.

Lily looked over Scorpius' shoulder at the infamous Lucius Malfoy. She'd been nervous about meeting him after reading all about his exploits in those history books. She knew he'd been in Lord Voldemort's inner circle and had tried to kill her father on at least two occasions.

"Don't worry, Lily, he's not like that anymore. He had to change with the end of the war and obviously with father marrying mum," Scorpius said reassuringly.

Lily found herself being sized up by the cool grey eyes of Lucius. She moved in closer to Scorpius who shot a glare at his grandpa.

Draco nudged him in the side and whispered "Behave, you're freaking the girl out."

Lucius settled for glaring at Potter once more. Harry shifted uncomfortably under the weight of the Malfoy gaze.

The fire flared green again as Ginny arrived followed closely by Albus and James.

"Hermione, it's so nice of you to invite us all over," Ginny said, giving her old friend a massive hug.

Ginny then noticed the rather strained atmosphere. It was going to take a lot to break down the decades of barriers between the two families. Ginny took a deep breath and faced the man who'd placed a horcrux in her cauldron, which had almost killed her at the tender age of eleven.

"Mr Malfoy, it was very nice of you to invite us over," Ginny said, holding her hand out.

Lucius glanced quickly at Hermione, who pointedly looked at him. If he wanted to live to see the New Year, then he realised he was going to have to respond nicely to Ginny Potter nee Weasley. Lucius hoped Scorpius appreciated the lengths he was going to for him.

"Ginevra, it's our pleasure to have you and your charming daughter over," Lucius choked out. The fact that he'd failed to mention any of the male Potters was not lost on anyone but it was the best that Lucius could do. At least he hadn't hexed anyone and thrown them out.

The eclectic group waited for Luna, Ron and their kids to arrive. Lucius hid out in the corner, not at all comfortable with the amount of Potters and Weasleys in the Manor. Hermione couldn't help but laugh at how stressed out her father-in-law was getting. A late lunch was served and Lily was discomposed to find herself sitting in between Scorpius and Lucius.

"So you're the girl that has my grandson all of a flutter," Lucius said.

Lily peeked up at the severe older man sitting next to her. "Well, I wouldn't say that Scorpius gets fluttered. He would think it a very un-Malfoy thing to do," she replied.

Lucius couldn't help but smirk at that. "It's good to know he's aware of what is due his name," he said sternly but with a twinkle in his eye.

Lily smiled cheekily at the eldest Malfoy. "Oh, from what I understand, there's yet to be born a Malfoy who isn't inordinately proud of his name."

"Hmmm I'm not sure whether that's a complement or criticism. Coming from a Potter, I'm inclined to view it as the latter."

"This Potter is rather attached to the Malfoy dignity. Besides, we Potters are rather proud as well," Lily responded.

"I always found your father annoyingly proud of being both a Gryffindor and a Potter," Lucius said scornfully.

"He was almost a Slytherin. Personally, I find Slytherins and Gryffindors to be pretty similar. Both houses think themselves above the other houses, have inordinate amounts of pride in themselves and value their house characteristics highly," Lily explained.

Lucius raised his eyebrow, amused by her outspoken comments. "Have you ever expressed this at Hogwarts?" He asked.

"Are you crazy? I'd be disowned by the whole of Gryffindor and ridiculed by Slytherin. It's bad enough that I'm dating a Slytherin and a Malfoy at that. Suggest that Slytherins and Gryffindors have anything at all in common, it's practically heresy."

Lucius laughed, drawing the eyes of the table upon them. Harry frowned slightly at the sight of his daughter chatting away freely to Lucius Malfoy.

"You'll do nicely, mini-Potter," Lucius replied simply.

Scorpius squeezed Lily's knee. "Grandpa likes you," he whispered.

"Surprisingly, I like your grandpa," she whispered back.

"He has a soft spot for Gryffindor girls, I think grandma is grateful he didn't discover this until late in life," Scorpius continued.

Lily couldn't help but giggle at that. The thought of Lucius Malfoy harbouring secret passions for female Gryffindors was very amusing.

After Lucius' thaw at lunchtime, the atmosphere got a lot lighter. That, and the fact that the wine was freely flowing by this point.

It was tradition for the Zabini family to come over in the late afternoon and if Blaise and his wife were surprised to see so many red-heads at Malfoy Manor they kept it quite. Marco Zabini was not so tactful.

"It's like a Gryffindor convention in here," he complained as he took in everyone.

Blaise elbowed his son in the ribs whilst Draco glared daggers at him. This was the upstart who was interested in his daughter.

It was decided that some exercise was needed and a game of Quidditch was planned out. There were enough people for it to be split into Slytherin versus Gryffindor – well if Lily would play Slytherin for the day, something Lucius was very keen on but Harry protested vigorously. Lucky for the Malfoy antiques at risk if a hex war broke out, Hermione defused the situation by outright refusing to countenance such a plan. Instead, she split the teams by age. Scorpius, Lily, Albus, James, Hugo and Marco took on Harry, Draco, Ron, Ginny and Blaise with Lucius happy to play beater for the older team.

"Make sure you get a good hit in on Marco, Grandpa," Scorpius said.

"Why?" Lucius asked.

"The deadbeat likes Alcyone," Draco growled.

"A Zabini after our Alcyone?" Lucius said. "The cheek of him thinking he's good enough."

"No word about this to Hermione though," Draco warned.

"Or Narcissa. She'd have our guts for garters," Lucius said.

"Or Alcyone. She seems to think Marco is charming," Scorpius mentioned, rolling his eyes.

The younger team certainly had the advantage as their skills were finely honed after a term of playing and training. However, Lucius was a demon of a beater, managing to swing the advantage back to his own team. The only player he didn't aim at was Lily, who used this chivalry to her advantage and was scoring huge amounts of points.

"Blimey, Mr Malfoy, take her out," Ron yelled from the goalposts after Lily had just put the quaffle past him again. Lily just winked cheekily at her irate uncle.

Harry called a time-out. "Look, if we're going to have a chance of winning, then you're going to have to aim that ball at my daughter, Lucius."

"I'm not hitting her; she may carry the next generation of Malfoys. I might do some serious damage," Lucius replied.

"Firstly, think twice about Lily becoming a Malfoy. Secondly, I don't care. I want to win," Harry said.

"Bloody Gryffindors," Lucius grumbled. "No sense of self-preservation. It's all about the glory."

No compromise was reached and Harry had to signal the game to restart. It didn't last too long afterwards as Lucius hit an absolute beast of a bludger at Marco Zabini, knocking him out. No-one from the other team felt like playing after Hermione had healed Marco and Alcyone wasn't talking to her male relatives after she caught Scorpius and Draco giving Lucius a high-five.

By the time the evening came to a close, there was an uneasy truce between the Potter-Weasleys and the Malfoys, mainly fostered by the women of each family. That, and the fact that Lucius had taken an inordinate shine to Lily Potter, which made him behave somewhat.

"Malfoy, thanks for having us over. It's not quite been a pleasure but definitely better than I expected," Harry said shaking Draco's hand.

Ron ambled over. "The food was bloody brilliant. Any chance I could get the recipe for that panettone bread and butter pudding?"

Draco smirked at the greedy red-head. Some things never changed. "I'll get Hermione to owl the recipe over."

"Thanks, oh and next year, I get first dibs on your dad for the Quidditch match," Ron continued.

Draco quirked an eyebrow, "Who said they'd be a next year?"

"Please, look at your son and my niece. If they don't get married, I'll eat my broom," Ron replied.

Harry looked after at the young couple and tried not to gag as he saw them kissing.

Scorpius pulled away from Lily. She mewled crossly and pouted up at her boyfriend.

"I hadn't finished kissing you yet," She complained.

"If we kiss anymore, there's a danger your dad may turn Slytherin green. We couldn't have the great Harry Potter so degraded," Scorpius smirked.

"I'll see you again during the holidays, won't I?" Lily asked, not wanting to spend another ten days away from Scorpius.

"Your brothers don't know yet, but your mum invited me around for Boxing Day. It'll be a nice surprise for Albus and James," Scorpius said evilly.

"Good, I can't wait to see you," Lily responded before tip-toeing to get another kiss in.


	14. Author's Note

**Author's Note: Sorry this isn't an epilogue to an epilogue, or, indeed, notice of me editing to fix some of the horrendous grammatical mistakes in this story, but some exciting news. The Temptation of Miss Potter has been nominated in the Summer 2012 Round of The HP FanFic Fan Poll Awards. Voting starts today and the link is on my profile, so feel free to head over there and vote for your favourite stories. **


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